Fall Recycling Day Makes Recycling Practical for Athens Residents
By: Connor Kurek
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Athens’ recycling rates are increasing thanks to over 80 residents who delivered cars full of electronics, appliances, cardboard, books and other paper items to Fall Recycling Day 2017.
The Athens Hocking Solid Waste District used the day as an opportunity for people to get rid of items too large to throw away at home and Jennifer Childers has been rounding up clutter since spring.
“My oldest son moved out so I’m just cleaning out his room,” Childers said. “He had an old TV, we have a VCR, these things that I’ve had in my house for 20 years and I’m just ready to get rid of them.”
For Childers, recycling at the fairgrounds was practical. She said she couldn’t just throw her tube TV in the trash can outside her house. But at the fairgrounds, workers and volunteers handle the appliances.
“It’s just a good way to get things out of your house,” Childers said. “People should do it every year instead of letting stuff pile up. That can be a fire hazard.”
And it can also he a hazard to the environment. The main goal of the event is to divert solid waste away from the landfills so it can be recycled, repurposed and reused.
The day is part of the Athens and Hocking County plan to reach the state’s standard recycling rate: 25%. Currently, the counties recycle 19% of their waste and the one man team who runs operations for the Waste District, Roger Bail, is hopeful.
“So, we’re approaching the goal,” Bail said, “but we’re not there yet. We’ve come a long way but still have a ways to go.”
Bail said the day was a success and crucial to increasing Athens’ recycling rate. He runs the event twice a year: once in the fall and once in the spring.
One of Bail’s volunteers, Pamela Stevenson, said drivers were grateful for the event’s convenience.
“There’s a lot of people that really thanked us and really appreciated being able to get things out of their house, out of their yard, that kind of thing,” Stevenson said. “So yeah, people really do appreciate it.”
So while residents get to clear their homes of useless appliances, Bail and the Waste District make those products useful again, and put them in a new home.
