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Recycling catches on with more residents
(by Sue Reid - May 20, 2010)
Recycling catches on with more residents
By SUE REID
The importance of recycling will continue to be the focus of the Solon Service Department, which has implemented the third and final phase of an automated rubbish program, Service Director Thomas Bandiera said last week.
As a result of a streamlined approach and the automated rubbish program, over 50 percent of Solon residents participate in recycling, Mr. Bandiera said. Compared to 2007, when the city made an average of 5,000 stops a month for recycling, it now makes between 13,000 and 17,000 stops, he said. "Last month, we made almost 18,000 stops."
Mr. Bandiera said recycling is picked up in Solon five days a week. "You can just see the increase in the number of stops," he said.
Another "very significant point to make," Mr. Bandiera said, is that, in terms of tonnage collected, the number has doubled in recent years.
"In 2007, an average month was 50 to 65 tons," he said. "Now we're well over 120 tons a month." That shows the amount of people participating in the program.
Mr. Bandiera said that from the beginning when the city implemented the recycling program in the mid-1980s, it was difficult to teach people about the importance of recycling.
"We needed to be responsible stewards," Mr. Bandiera said of the message the city was trying to get across.
Former recycling manager Ed Butler helped pioneer the program, Mr. Bandiera said.
"Solon was one of the first communities to have a large-scale materials handling facility here at the service department where everything would get sorted," he said. "As the program evolved, the city went to single-stream recycling." That meant that residents could commingle their items in one bag without having to separate them, Mr. Bandiera said.
"We realized we needed to make it a streamlined program for residents that would be easy to participate in," he said. "The single stream is a direct result of that." Service department employees pick up the recycling right at the curb and take it right to a transfer station in Bedford.
"It's getting all of those products out of our solid-waste stream," he said. Another benefit is because the city is not picking it up in trucks, they are not paying for that tonnage to dump it into the landfill.
Service Department employee Scott Jakosh, who has taken over the recycling program, worked to introduce the single stream and secondary recycling program, Mr. Bandiera said. Mr. Jakosh always is willing to stop and talk to residents and get a recycling program going in their household, Mr. Bandiera said.
With phase three of the automated rubbish program instituted, which incorporates many of the city's main routes, Mr. Bandiera said that moving forward, his department will continue to educate residents on the importance of recycling and how easy it is to do.
"That will be our focus over the next year," he said. In addition, the city will work in helping residents in phase three of the automated rubbish program adjust.
"We'll look at how we can better help the residents with recycling needs and continue to try to come up with better programs," Mr. Bandiera said.
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