MOUNT VERNON — Recycling has been encouraged for many years as something good for the environment. Unless a community has curbside recycling, many people think it is inconvenient. Now, efforts by government and private businesses are making it easier than ever to recycle.
The Knox County Recycling Center on Columbus Road is owned by the county and leased to Sims Brothers Inc., an industrial recycling company that operates in five locations in central Ohio.
“We cover the range of household recycling,” explained Dave Jenkins of Sims Brothers. “We take plastic, glass, cardboard, paper and tin cans. Also, since we privatized about two years ago, we also buy non-ferrous metals. So if you have stainless steel, copper, brass or aluminum and aluminum cans, we’d be glad to buy them from you.”
Dropping off material for recycling has been made especially easy for those with nonstandard working hours. Sims Brothers has made several changes to accommodate those who cannot drop off material during the center’s usual working hours. Sorting procedures have also been changed, and the types of materials taken for recycling expanded.
Plastics can be brought through the center’s drive-thru during working hours, or put in any of several bins designated for plastic. The bins are outside the facility and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“So you can come and sort your household materials into those bins,” Jenkins said. “If you have your stuff pre-sorted you can come through the drive-thru during working hours and we will take the stuff out of your car for you. The only difference is the material has to be sorted if you come through the drive-thru. Cardboard should be separate from your bottles. Things like that.
“We try to make it as easy as possible,” Jenkins explained. “Prior to us taking it over, the county required a specific sorting system. They only took 1’s and 2’s of plastics, for instance. Now you can bring us any of your plastics marked one through five. The only thing we don’t take in terms of plastics is Styrofoam.”
The center also takes used motor oil and electronics, which should be brought to the center during operating hours, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Saturday 8 a.m. to noon.
The recycling center also services the AlleyCat recycle bins owned by the county. The bins are located throughout the county in several permanent locations and a number of temporary locations.
Permanent locations are in Centerburg, Danville, Fredericktown, Martinsburg and Apple Valley. Temporary locations have been established in the townships of Berlin, Brown, Harrison, Liberty, Miller and Pike. Bins are placed in these locations on a rotating basis.
Planet Earth, 800 Sandusky St., is another recycling business making being green a little bit easier. Planet Earth is known mainly for buying aluminum cans, but it does much more than that.
“We take aluminum cans, of course,” said Chuck Smith, manager of Planet Earth. “And we also buy non-ferrous metals. We have bins for recycled materials and a drive through for dropping off aluminum cans.”
Planet Earth will take old oil and automotive batteries for recycling, but does not handle electronic equipment.
Many businesses offer specialized recycling programs that let patrons drop off material as they’re shopping or doing business. Several retailers such as the Kroger Co., Wal-Mart and Kmart have plastic recycling bins where old plastic merchandise bags can be dropped off.
“All Kroger stores in the Columbus Division [have this recycle program],” said Amy Barlow, Kroger media relations director for the Columbus division. “Customers can recycle dry cleaning bags and shrink wrap and similar plastic products. The bags are collected and recycled into other products, such as other plastic bags, plastic landscape bricks and plastic lumber.”
Similar programs exist with other types of businesses. Many auto repair shops and auto supply stores will take old automotive batteries for recycling. Places like Campus Auto in Gambier, Auto Zone and Automotive supplies will take in most types of automotive batteries, including tractor batteries, for recycling. Most will take in old batteries even if the new battery was not installed or purchased from the business.
While the commercial recycling centers will also take old batteries, being able to drop them off at a garage or an auto supply store might have the same advantage as recycling bags at the retail stores.
“We recycle almost everything at home,” Jenkins noted. “And what is not recycled is organic [matter] and we put it on the compost pile. We don’t even have a garbage collect service. It’s really that easy.”
