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City officials and neighborhood leaders gathered today at the Rumpke Recycling Facility to kick off the new citywide curbside recycling program — officially being dubbed “RecyColumbus” — which will gradually roll out over the next year.
“It’s been a long wait, but I’m proud that residential recycling is finally here for our city, our neighborhoods and our environment,” said Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman. “This program will make Columbus greener while saving millions of dollars in landfill fees.”
The new recycling program will be rolled out in five phases over the next nine months, based on yard waste pickup days. Over 50,000 homes on the west and southwest sides of Columbus will be first in line to receive the 64-gallon blue recycling containers between mid-April and mid-May with collection scheduled to start on June 4th.
“This program marks an important next step toward increasing our diversion rate and prolonging the life of our landfill,” said Columbus City Council President Andrew Ginther. “RecyColumbus also sets a path forward for Columbus and all of Central Ohio to work together to increase our recycling efforts and to do so in the most effective and efficient way possible.”
The RecyColumbus program will serve over 227,000 households after it has been fully rolled out by February 2013.
More information can be found online at www.RecycleColumbus.org.
Awesome! It’s about time Columbus had this setup.
Can’t wait for mine – in another year+
This is great and I am THRILLED! but when can we expect accessible recycling for all the businesses downtown? Currently no companies will pick up in the downtown area without charging nearly double their usual fees. And with the amount of waste being produced it’s a prime area for recycling!
Curbside recycling is a waste of time and effort, and probably causes more harm to the environment than it helps. Think of all the pollution created by and use of raw materials (fuel, tires, oil, etc.) by the trucks that would have to visit every household in the city, and the metro area for that matter, every week or two. Also, citizens separate the recyclables from their trash and then it get mixed together when it goes into the recycling truck (does this make sense?), and unfortunately the systems used nationally to separate the different recyclables, use more energy and only recover about 50% of the recyclables that are delivered to the separation facility. We would be much better off with coordinated drop off sites throughout the metro area that are near where people shop and work. If we drop off our recyclables while going to work or running errands, then there is no waste of gas and the recycling trucks would only have to stop at a hundred or so sites. Then, individual trucks could be used to pick up each type of material: clear glass, mixed glass, aluminum, steel, paper, newsprint etc., thus removing the need for a large, expensive separation facility. We need to look at the big picture when making decisions about how to help the environment.
Except of course participation rates are negligible at best with drop off recycling. So even less material is recovered.
Yeah, if it’s not made free and easy for all people, then participation will never gain traction.
finally!
glad to see some movement on this.
Reading through the German Village newsletter this morning and came across this quote:
“Nancy Sully, the legislative assistant to Councilwoman Eileen Paley and a Villager herself, said that when the blue bins are dropped off, residents will have the ability to reject the delivery. City workers have been trained to ask residents to please try the bins, but Sully said it is absolutely your right to refuse delivery.
More details about exactly when Village drop-offs will occur, and how to receive or reject delivery, will be provided closer to time.”
Personally, I find it odd that people could opt out of this. I get that it’s another bin to have to store and manage and maybe it would clutter up your nice landscaping, but I think it should be a requirement for a Columbus citizen.
Exactly TheOnlyNikki! I know our building recycles copy paper, only because they sell it to someone. bottles cans newspaper and the like, they do not care about. It is frustrating.
It’s 1989 all over again!