A new Recycling Bank of Gwinnett will be up and running by November.

It will be larger and more comprehensive than the facility damaged by fire on June 25, said Connie Wiggins, executive director of Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful.

The group operated the recycling center in three county-owned buildings. The buildings and equipment they contained were lost in the fire. Wiggins said the equipment alone was valued at $2.5 million, including balers, conveyor systems and heavy machinery, such as Bobcats and front-end loaders.

Officials from Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful are working with county officials to complete the design of the new facility, Wiggins said. The County Commission approved using insurance payments for a new building.

During the past 20 years, Gwinnett County's building codes have changed, as have state rules for storing recyclable materials. These changes mean that instead of three buildings, the new Recycling Bank will be just "one huge building with a lot of storage capacity," Wiggins said.

The design also will take into consideration the three main bank users —- groups or individuals donating materials, groups or individuals wanting to be paid for their materials, and haulers bringing materials collected at the curb.

Since most recyclables come from curbside, "that's driving the new design," Wiggins said.

The building will need a roof at least 40 feet high to accommodate trucks unloading materials. And plans are being made to guide incoming commercial truck traffic away from citizens' vehicles.

An ongoing problem for Clean & Beautiful is that people keep dropping off materials at the closed Satellite Boulevard site.

"They're really doing illegal dumping because the facility is closed," Wiggins said.

She recommends checking the Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful Web site for alternative locations. While they're online, Wiggins suggests people complete a survey asking what additional materials should be recycled.

"Some people are asking us to handle used electronics," Wiggins said.

"We are taking everything into consideration, because we want to be the one-stop mega recycling location in the county."