Whitley County's curbside recycling program continues to grow
By Jennifer Zartman Romano
Last week as Whitley County Solid Waste Management director Jorell Tucker talked with local business people, he couldn't help but share his delight about the increased level of recycling in Whitley County this year.
Tucker said he knew the new, single stream recycling program introduced at the beginning of the year was going to be popular based on the phone calls and comments he received from local residents. Residents were excited about the simplicity of the new program, the inclusion of more items to recycle, the containers with built-in wheels and the fact that a local vendor, Whitley Environmental, had been selected as the contractor for the curbside program.
From January 1 through June 30, Whitley Environmental's recycling trucks have picked up 1,108 tons of recyclables from homes in Whitley County -- up over the 760 tons of material recycled in the same period last year through contractor National Serv-All. Tucker said he believes recycling in Whitley County will set record levels by the end of the year.
"People seem to really like the program," Tucker said. "We're seeing a lot more people recycling."
He said the county still has certain pockets where people are misusing the program and attempting to use their recycling bins as trash containers. He said he may try to do some education in these areas, but he said as the residents frequently change in these areas, there are always new people to inform about what can and cannot be placed in their recycle bins. Some of it happens because people aren't clear about what to recycle and some of it, according to Tucker, is that people knowingly do it to avoid paying for trash removal.
Tucker said Whitley Environmental continues to grow and expand as the interest in recycling does. He said they will have fully automated conveyors for sorting soon later this year.
Last week as Whitley County Solid Waste Management director Jorell Tucker talked with local business people, he couldn't help but share his delight about the increased level of recycling in Whitley County this year.
Tucker said he knew the new, single stream recycling program introduced at the beginning of the year was going to be popular based on the phone calls and comments he received from local residents. Residents were excited about the simplicity of the new program, the inclusion of more items to recycle, the containers with built-in wheels and the fact that a local vendor, Whitley Environmental, had been selected as the contractor for the curbside program.
From January 1 through June 30, Whitley Environmental's recycling trucks have picked up 1,108 tons of recyclables from homes in Whitley County -- up over the 760 tons of material recycled in the same period last year through contractor National Serv-All. Tucker said he believes recycling in Whitley County will set record levels by the end of the year.
"People seem to really like the program," Tucker said. "We're seeing a lot more people recycling."
He said the county still has certain pockets where people are misusing the program and attempting to use their recycling bins as trash containers. He said he may try to do some education in these areas, but he said as the residents frequently change in these areas, there are always new people to inform about what can and cannot be placed in their recycle bins. Some of it happens because people aren't clear about what to recycle and some of it, according to Tucker, is that people knowingly do it to avoid paying for trash removal.
Tucker said Whitley Environmental continues to grow and expand as the interest in recycling does. He said they will have fully automated conveyors for sorting soon later this year.