One of Alabama’s fastest growing counties overhauled their waste disposal infrastructure, hoping to divert more trash from the landfill and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

In addition, the SWDA also formerly opened a “renewable natural gas” plant at Magnolia Landfill Thursday, which has begun to capture the gases emitted by the landfill to turn it into natural gas to power homes in the county.

“The work is just starting,” Terri Graham, CEO of the Baldwin County Solid Waste Disposal Authority, said. “We still have a long way to go. This is just our push to get people to understand what we’re trying to do.”

Thursday’s unveiling was the catalyst toward more recycling in Baldwin County: eventually, the entire county will be eligible for curbside recycling because of the plant, Graham said.

Over the next couple of years, the county will slowly scale up curbside recycling efforts. In Daphne, some residents have already received letters notifying them of eligibility for curbside recycling, Mayor Robin LeJeune said Thursday. While the city will handle trash pickup, the county will resume curbside recycling in town.

Residents will have to pay a monthly fee for curbside recycling, LeJeune said. If they don’t want to pay, county residents can drop off recycling at one of the 24 drop-off locations throughout the county.

And the SWDA hopes to partner with communities throughout southwest Alabama to bring their recyclables to the MRF, Graham said.

The solid waste authority will also roll out six “Centers for Hard-to-Recycle Materials” (CHaRMs) over the next couple of years, Graham said. These centers will take household hazardous waste, lithium-ion batteries, glass, and other materials that can be recycled but can’t be processed at the MRF.

“By processing and supplying high-quality recyclable materials, we are keeping resources and business here in Alabama,” Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said in a video message during the event.

Less than a mile away, the RNG plant has begun capturing the methane gas emitted from the landfill as waste decomposes. It then “cleans” the gas of contaminants and converts it to natural gas, which is then piped to a larger natural gas pipeline run by Riviera Utilities.

The plant, constructed by Viridi Energy, promises to provide enough energy to heat 2,500 homes. The county should receive around $650,000-$700,000 per year from the sale of the gas, Graham previously told AL.com. Those funds will be used to offset the cost of the MRF.

The new MRF cost around $25 million to build, according to the news release. Funding came from a variety of sources, including the Baldwin County Commission, the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, the Glass Recycling Foundation and The Recycling Partnership.

And Graham said the authority hopes to take advantage of partnerships with industry businesses to sell the commodities from the MRF: the forthcoming Novelis aluminum recycling and rolling plant in Bay Minette and KW Plastics in Troy, for example.

Within the MRF is a 7,000 square foot “Waste & Recycling Adventure Center,” an educational space, where visitors can learn about how garbage and recycling works. Visitors to the adventure center can observe recycling in action: large windows and a mezzanine overlook the recycling machinery.

“The educational portion of this is going to be fantastic,” Baldwin County Commissioner Billie Jo Underwood previously told AL.com. “The educational portion of this is going to be designed for, not just school children to come in and look at, I really hope that adults will take advantage of that.”