Charlottesville Recycles!
Posted by Paige
As many of you know, I recently moved from the City of Charlottesville just over the border into Albemarle County. The move brought to the forefront for me some issues that Greater Charlottesville struggles with. The biggest one for me is the lack of curbside recycling outside the City’s limits. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to live in cities since I was 10 years old that had curbside pick-up. From Columbus to Charleston, and even Richmond all had curbside recycling.
On closing day, speaking with Harrison Grubbs, my Realtor, I joked that as owner or an eco-shop, I was going to have to do something about this. And 3-weeks later I found it: Sue Battani, founder of Cville Concierge, has started a county curbside recycling program called: My Recycling Club.
I met with Sue last week to chat and learn a little more about the program. And it’s pretty simple. All you need is six households to join and you can have pick-up in your neighborhood. Sue said over the past few years, her concierge business has been sorting and collecting recycling for clients and the idea hatched. So far, two communities are in full swing with many more soon to follow.
The program is easy, everything the McIntire Recycling Center collects, her program will collect, which is more than what the City picks up. She’ll take cardboard, plastics numbered 1 and 2, glass, aluminum, tin, newspaper, office paper, magazines, junk mail, etc. Preferably separated, "My Recycling Club" picks up every-other week. You can even buy stackable containers for $50 to help sort your recyclables. The program is $20/month.
My initial wheels are turning to find a vendor that will help her to also collect plastics above ones and twos, so hopefully "My Recycling Club" will take all plastics in the future. If you are looking for a solution to dragging your recycling to McIntire every week, or are frustrated by watching your neighbor’s glass get dumped into the garbage, check out www.MyRecyclingClub.com and get a program going in your neighborhood.
Twenty dollars a month? Each family chips in twenty dollars a month? That is steep. I’ll keep carting my own recycling to McIntire for that much money. I realize of course that it’s a business trying to make money, but twenty dollars a month makes recycling that way a luxury expenditure. We need to keep working towards eco-friendly lifestyle choices not only accessible to the well-off.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008 11:16:00 PM EDT
How much of this material actually gets recycled ? You would be surprised to find out the truth. Recycling costs a fortune in many ways.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008 8:17:00 PM EST