The Marietta Area Recycling Center is alive and well!
The land at 915 Gilman Ave. is not going to be sold - good news! The search for a new site and for funding consumed much time and effort. Many people offered suggestions and a lot of sites were inspected but none can measure up to a location people are accustomed to bringing their recyclables.
The funding has taken a little longer but it is looking positive. Supporters of the Center sent donations to Washington-Morgan Community Action, 218 Putnam St. in response to a sign posted at the center and this method is important and still highly recommended for the continued operation of the Center.
Robert Flowers designed, fabricated and installed a donation tube at the center which has yielded additional donations. We now have sufficient funds to stay afloat through July and possibly August. If you haven't donated yet but plan to, please do so.
It is heartening to hear the new Colegate site is doing well - it shows the level of interest in recycling in the Mid-Ohio Valley. The more opportunities people have, the more the total volume should increase.
Recycling options vary depending on location: the city has curbside, Washington County has trailers that visit various communities, and, of course, the drop-off center on Colegate and the non-profit, volunteer-staffed drop-off-center on Gilman.
Most areas in the country are trying to increase the volume of recycling but the SE Ohio Joint Solid Waste District is taking the "escape clause" in the Ohio regulations of making recycling available to a larger percentage of the population.
A state coordinator from another part of the country explained that the effort to increase volume isn't only to divert materials from the landfill but also for the economy and jobs. One author points out "The recycling process is all about providing raw materials for manufacturing and we need the public to know that. Even more, we need community and county-level budget makers to know that."
A recent hint suggested "Make Recycling Easy" which can be interpreted in several ways. Recycling should be an easily acquired habit since we buy items separately and we use the contents of containers separately so it should be easy to separate them when they are empty.
The volunteers at the Gilman center believe recycling should be convenient and so the site is available for drop-off and sorting of materials 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Whether people are coming to Marietta to work, shop, go to church or a movie, the site is available.
The volunteers are especially appreciative of those who sort their materials so conscientiously - "If you're not sorting you're not recycling" is a favorite slogan. And one has only to think about it for a few minutes to realize that the earlier in the journey between home and the ultimate manufacturer that the sorting is done, the more likely that material will be clean enough to be recycled so it will not be sent to landfill because of contamination.
Marietta Area Recycling Center volunteers also feel we should recycle as many materials as possible. Most centers can take paper products, glass and cans but plastics vary from site to site. Since we hand-sort, we are able to take numbers 1, 2, 4, and 5 (most of you will recognize these as being in the triangle of chasing arrows on the bottom of most containers) and as of now, they are all going to Mondo Polymer Technologies as part of their feed stock - supporting local manufacturing jobs and business. Please remember to remove spray-pump tops and other lids with metal.
At this time, our funding to stay afloat is from aluminum cans and newspaper (bring on the newspaper!) in addition to donations. Expenses include rent and usual costs of doing business such as dumpster service which amount to about $10,000. per year.
Donations have been received from as far away as Rockport, W.Va., Belpre and New Matamoras although most are more local - Wood Co. WV and Washington Co.
Many thanks to the following donors (as of 6/17):
Brownie Scout Troop 1297, Carrie Curry, CCD Imaging, Robert Flowers, June Fritsche, Don Hopp, Christina Hendershot, Anne Jacoby, Robert & Robin Johnson, David Linscott, Carolyn Matheny, Tom and Laurie Munc, James and Vickie Sheppard, Lynn & Jim Stallcup, and Lynne & Jim Zoller and to all who have left donations anonymously.
Marilyn Ortt lives in Marietta
