To the editor: 

On Feb. 2, the first Saturday of the month, I visited the landfill located at Lower River Road on the Bypass. I went there to drop off cooking oil and used batteries, as we have been permitted to do in the past. 

However, when I got up to the gate, I was informed that the county is no longer taking used cooking oil and that, in fact, I would have to go all the way to a recycling center in Walton County to drop off my cooking oil. As for the batteries, I was told that I would have to drop them off a Batteries Plus in Conyers because the landfill no longer takes them either. 

So, I turned the car around and as I drove back home I began to fear the worst - that is that if I have nowhere in the county to leave used cooking oil, I would actually have to give up fried chicken and all the other delicious fried foods I so enjoy! Could my doctor be involved with this healthy - yet appalling - idea?!? 

Can someone tell me it isn't true that residents of Newton County have to travel 20 miles away to get rid of used cooking oil?  Moreover, what are we paying after all?

Scharlene Bivens

Covington