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Chattanooga: More clean in being green

By: Cliff Hightower
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Tera Roberts Richard Beeland

Twice a week, Chad Varga stops off at the convenience center on Access Road at DuPont Parkway to toss cardboard boxes from his sport utility vehicle into a bin at the recycling center.

“I just load it up and drop it off,” said Mr. Varga, who stopped using the city’s curbside recycling service months ago.

While the amount of recycling tonnage for the city has declined, the amount that actually is recyclable has increased, city records show.

Dan Johnson, chief of staff for Mayor Ron Littlefield, said last week the increase in so-called clean recycling is attributed directly to the decision to scale down curbside recycling and open four convenience centers across the city.

“We knew it was an unpopular decision,” Mr. Johnson said. “But it’s worked.”

Reasons vary for why some materials cannot be recycled, anything from not being recyclable — like certain types of plastic or old clothing — to having liquids or food inside that spoils and contaminates other recyclables with bacteria.

In 2006, almost 44 percent of recycling that came in was hauled off to a landfill because it could not be recycled. That figure has fallen to 13 percent this year, officials said.

During the first eight months of this year, the city averaged 322 tons of clean recycling a month, city records show. The city averaged 255 tons of clean recycling per month in 2007 and 193 tons per month in 2006.

Tera Roberts, director of adult services at Orange Grove Center, said the goal is to see 20 percent or less of the recycling be thrown out. The center sorts the recycling that comes from the city through curbside pickup and dropoff at convenience centers, she said.

Four convenience centers are open across the city with a fifth opening in Brainerd in two months, officials said. Before the centers opened, the city would get many items that couldn’t be recycled, including bowling balls, old tennis shoes or plastic containers filled with oil, she said.

The centers force people to separate recycled materials themselves and place them into containers, educating the public on what can or cannot be recycled, said city spokesman Richard Beeland.

“I think more people are in tune,” he said.

Mr. Varga agreed.

“You’re more educated on how to recycle stuff at the convenience centers,” he said. “The tendency with curbside is just to throw your stuff on the side of the road.”

Since curbside pickup went to once a month almost a year and a half ago, the amount of recycling has been cut in half, records show. In 2006, 4,641 tons of recycling were picked up at the curb, compared to 2,235 tons in 2007, records show.

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