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GREENSBORO — Alternative fuel vehicles, energy audits on county buildings and a gradually expanding recycling program are the latest moves for what Guilford County is doing to reduce its impact on the environment.

“I swear, a year ago the idea of building green would not cross anyone’s mind,” said Roger Bardsley , the county’s parks planner.

But that’s not all that’s happening these days.

In early 2008, the county decided to renovate a building in downtown High Point for its next social services office instead of constructing a new building and using new resources to make another structure.

“How much energy did it take to create them and install them?” Bardsley said. “And that’s why you get a huge amount of points for using something that is already there.”

That philosophy also runs through the county’s open-space projects, such as the land for the state’s Mountains-to-Sea trail that’s slated to run through Guilford County.

And it has applied to a recycling program that seems ever-expanding.

“People do really want to go green,” said Susan Heim , the county’s environmental services director. “They see it as a positive thing, not just one of those painful little things that the government would like you to do.”

In past years, the countywide collection for electronics and hazardous waste would occur on a single day in the year, usually somewhere in Greensboro.

Now, she said, more municipalities are asking for their own recycling days. Places such as Greensboro and High Point collect old appliances to recycle for residents, but smaller towns in the county and unincorporated sections of the county may not have curbside pickup for their recyclable waste.

“Folks need to understand why it’s important to not throw things in the trash when they could be more effectively disposed otherwise,” Heim said.

Recycling also can help keep tax bills down, she said.

Much of the garbage in Guilford County heads to a landfill in Montgomery County, 80 miles away. Less garbage here means less money spent to truck it there.

Money made from recycling programs goes back to the government-run program, too.

To build on that success, Heim said she hopes more people learn the ins and outs of recycling.

Anyone with questions about county recycling can contact her at 641-3792 or sheim@co.guilford.nc.us.

Contact Gerald Witt at 373-7008 or gerald.witt@news-record.com