The City of Dublin, Washington Township and SWACO are teaming up to introduce Recycle Right, Make a Difference – an initiative aimed at improving Franklin County’s rate of recycling.
In 2018, residents and businesses in Franklin County generated 2.5 million tons of waste – that’s enough to fill Ohio Stadium four times. In fact, on average each resident is tossing around five pounds of waste a day into the trash.
While the current recycling rate in Franklin County and Dublin, both at 50%, exceeds the national average, more than 76% of all material currently going into the landfill could be recycled or composted.
With this in mind, the City, Township and SWACO are introducing Recycle Right, a campaign designed to promote proper recycling to residents. Through recycling reminders and educational messages, the campaign aims to increase the effectiveness of recycling in Dublin and, in turn, reduce our reliance on the landfill.
“When residents in Dublin recycle, their simple actions join with those of thousands of people across Franklin County to create measurable impacts including supporting hundreds of jobs in our region, a cleaner environment and a healthier community for all of us,” said Hanna Greer-Brown, SWACO’s communications manager.
One of the main goals of the Recycle Right campaign is to reduce the amount of non-recyclable items that are being put in recycle carts. Every year, items which aren’t accepted for recycling like plastic bags, plastic containers and wire hangers are put in recycling carts and add delays and expenses to the recycling process.
“We call that ‘wish-cycling,’ when residents throw items in a recycle cart hoping it will be ok, but that leads to contamination, which actually harms our recycling efforts,” Greer-Brown said. “Just because a container has a recycling symbol on it, doesn’t mean it is accepted by the material recycling facility in our community.”
In Franklin County, only five kinds of materials are accepted for recycling:
- Paper and Cardboard
- Plastic Bottles, Jugs and now Yogurt Containers (new!)
- Glass Bottles and Jars
- Metal Cans
- Cartons
Everything else should be reused, donated, composted or disposed of safely.
“Recycling is a priority for the City of Dublin. We are one of the few communities to offer residents weekly curbside recycling collection with no fee for the resident,” said Operations Administrator Michael Darling. “We also offer compost and e-waste drop-offs as well as curbside leaf collection and chipper services, all of which are popular with residents and divert waste from the landfill.”
Proper recycling can have a positive impact on both the environment and on local economies. The Recycle Right campaign is designed to improve recycling, the environment and the local economy in ways that will pay off for years to come.
To learn more about the Recycle Right campaign or the many benefits of recycling, visit RecycleRight.org
Contacts:
Hanna Greer-Brown
Communications Manager – SWACO
4239 London Groveport Rd
Grove City, OH 43123
Office: 614-801-6419
Lindsay Weisenauer
Public Affairs Officer
614.704.9742
lweisenauer@dublin.oh.us
Newsroom: https://dublinohiousa.gov/newsroom/
