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Thursday, Sep. 09, 2010

Recycling numbers low in Macon, Bibb County

By MIKE STUCKA - mstucka@macon.com
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If recycling were a glass, Bibb County’s wouldn’t even be half full.

Statistics kept by Macon and Bibb County’s governments show that about 3 percent of items picked up at the curb are recycled, even though a state study says about 26 percent of items dumped in Middle Georgia landfills are recyclable paper. The landfills also get recyclable plastic bottles, glass and metal cans.

  • Some facts about recycling in Macon and Bibb County

    The city of Macon picks up newspapers citywide in a 14-gallon blue container every two weeks. A pilot program is testing single-stream curbside recycling, where all recyclable materials are placed in a blue 65-gallon container. That program has been rolled out to 2,000 homes and eight schools. The city also picks up bagged leaves, bagged grass, brush and small limbs cut in four-foot lengths.

    Residents of unincorporated Bibb County get recyclables picked up every other week. Recyclable items include newspapers, glass, crushed aluminum drink cans, tin-plated food cans, empty aerosol containers and plastic containers, which need to be crushed. Plastic bags are not recycled. Grass clippings, leaves, pine straw, limbs and brush must be neatly bagged, boxed or bundled at the curb, and small limbs must be cut to less than 4 feet in length.

    In a one-year period, Bibb County residents threw out 18,788 tons of material, or 87 percent of what was collected; recycled 725 tons of goods; and disposed of 1,997 tons of yard waste. In one August week in Macon, residents threw out 1.23 million pounds of material, or 89 percent of what was collected; disposed of 124,860 pounds of yard waste; and recycled 30,240 pounds of recycled material.

    In comparison, a 2005 Georgia Statewide Waste Characterization Study said Middle Georgia residents trashed plenty of stuff that was recyclable. Landfill waste included 5.3 percent newspaper, 13.8 percent cardboard, 1.8 percent in No. 1 and No. 2 plastic bottles and 1.7 percent glass. Paper products alone accounted for 35.5 percent of the landfill waste, the study found.

Macon Public Works Director Richard Powell said the city makes some money on recycling, but it also saves precious landfill space.

“I think the landfill space is more important than the money we get,” he said.

Bibb County, meanwhile, is paying to put trash and recyclable material in landfills.

Both governments are diverting a substantial amount of yard waste from the landfills, about 9 percent of what gets collected, statistics show. Yard waste goes into a different kind of landfill.

Some recyclable materials are taken by residents to other recycling depots, such as the ones run by Macon Iron.

At most Macon addresses, newspapers are the only recyclable the city picks up.

Powell said the city has been experimenting with better recycling efforts in select parts of the city. A pilot program for single-stream recycling — everything into one hopper — recently was expanded from 1,000 homes to 2,000 homes, mostly in the Vineville, Wimbish and Shirley Hills areas.

“We have probably a 90- to 95-percent participation rate where we’re doing single stream,” Powell said.

Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division doesn’t set goals for recycling, said Jeff Cown, who manages solid waste management programs. But the state had a goal of reducing landfill usage by 25 percent in the 1990s, a goal that was thwarted in part by strong population growth.

Cown said landfill use fell last year.

“We believe the economy had more to do with that than anything,” Cown said.

Declines in house construction may be reducing some of the landfill demand.

Cown said Georgia is working to make sure the infrastructure to recycle is in place.

To contact writer Mike Stucka, call 744-4251.




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