Columbus area recyclers have a variety of outlets and opportunities throughout the year to lessen their impact on the environment and help the city’s financial bottom line at the same time.
Carl M. Edwards is the supervisor at the Columbus Recycle Center, 960 24th Ave. The city’s recycle center, staffed by three part time employees, received 656,606 tons of material and revenues of $70,840 were recorded for the 2006-2007 fiscal year. The budget for the recycling center in that year was $191, 910 with about $100,000 of coming from various state grants.
Newspaper, cardboard and office paper topped the categories for most tonnage collected at the center in 2006-07 with nearly 389 tons of newspaper, 155 tons of cardboard and 78 tons of office paper collected.
Tin cans accounted for about 12 tons, No. 2 plastics were next at nearly 11 tons, No. 1 plastics collected equaled about 9.5 tons and aluminum came in at just under 1.5 tons collected.
The center provides a detailed guide to help residents understand the items that are accepted for recycling.
“I’d say that 99 percent of people are real good about bringing items in that we can easily work with,” Edwards said. “We accept paper, plastics, corrugated and flat cardboard, Styrofoam peanuts, aluminum and tin cans and smaller metal pieces.
“One of the most important things we try to do here it to keep it simple for Columbus residents to drop off their recyclable items. If something isn’t quite right we’re going to work with them to make it as easy as possible.”
Edwards said recyclers can make the job easier for employees at the center if they separate items into general categories before dropping it off.
“If people would separate clear plastic jugs like milk containers from colored plastic containers like detergent containers, office paper from newspapers and corrugated cardboard from the flat cardboard that’s used for cereal boxes, that would go a long way to making our job easier on this end,” Edwards said.
He said that residents who obtain the center’s guide to recyclable items do a good job of not bringing in items that the center can’t use.
“Most people do a very good job of only bringing the items we can use,” he said. “Having said that, we still fill from four to six dumpsters per week with items that don’t fit into what we do here.”
Edwards was careful to point out that the Columbus Recycle Center does not pay for the recyclables it receives from residents because the city’s recycling center is not in the business of competing with other recyclers in the area.
“We’re not trying to compete,” Edwards said. “The work we do does benefit the city budget and that’s a good reason to use the center, but we’re not trying to take any money out of the pockets of the other recyclers around the area.”
Edwards said they are not able to take electronics of any king and if residents have any questions they can call the center at 562-4270 before bringing items they may have questions about. The center does reserve the right to reject items that do not fit the criteria listed in its guide to recycling.
The center has a shredder available for use by individuals and local businesses. There is no charge for this service.
Individuals using the shredder are required to sign a waiver releasing the city from responsibility for the shredding of sensitive information and the person delivering materials to be shredded must stay to feed the material into the shredder.
Items that can not be accepted at the Columbus Recycle Center include glass, Styrofoam blocks, any wet paper items, any paper or plastic bags or containers that have contained animal parts, blood, chemical residue, excessive dust, decaying plant matter, metal. Chip bags such as cereal box liners, potato chip, and cookie bags are not accepted.
The Columbus Recycle Center works in cooperation with Keep Columbus Beautiful for the disposal of household electronics.
Keep Columbus Beautiful is a non-profit organization that promotes education and programs on litter reduction and recycling in Columbus and the surrounding communities.
Statistics show about 22 percent of the nation’s waste is being recycled. Nearly 25 percent of recyclable waste is recycled in Columbus and 8 percent of the community uses the recycling center.
Several have also been using recycling drives the organization has been hosting. September marked the organization’s sixth e-waste drive where thousands of pounds of computers and electronic items were collected.
Columbus Metal Industries (CMI) pays recyclers for a wide variety of scrap metals. The local metal recycler can be contacted daily for prices paid out on aluminum cans, cars, copper, radiators, batteries and iron by calling 564-2855.
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