City officials asking students to recycle

by Yosuke Takanashi
For The Post

Athens city officials have been struggling to reduce the amount of waste in the area, but without residents' cooperation, have not been able to accomplish their goals.

The officials have been working to increase recycling in the city.

Under a city ordinance, residents are requested to sort their trash, but they are not forced to recycle, said Ray Hazlett, city assistant service-safety director.

“If you recycle it instead of throwing away, your trash bill will be lower,” he said. “That’s a kind of theory behind (the ordinance).”

No pick-up charge is applied to a transparent bag that contains sorted materials, he said. A $2 recycling feeper month is mandatory for all Athens households, he said.

Athens charges residents $4.50 per month for the weekly collection of one 30-gallon trash container or $7.50 for two 30-gallon containers, Hazlett said. Each additional container needs a sticker, which costs $1, on it to be picked up. If no sticker is on the additional container, the resident will be charged $2 for pick-up.

Tom O’Grady, program manager of Athens-Hocking Recycling and Litter Prevention, said recycling workers collect and recycle about the same amount of materials in winter, spring and fall. In summer, they have less trash because most Ohio University students are out of town, he said.

But many people do not recycle, O’Grady said.

One problem behind the lack of recycling is Athens’ residential structure. Seventy-seven percent of households in the city are rental units to students who stay for nine months each year, O’Grady said.

Because the recycling program is not a big program, it does not have enough money to educate people every nine months, he said.

O’Grady said recycling has economical impacts on the community.

“The amount we recycled last four years would have cost over a half of million dollars for the disposal cost,” he said. “But we sold it. It brought $1 million back in this community.”

Councilwoman Nancy Bain, D-2nd Ward, said city officials have tried to improve the educational level on recycling among residents, but it is difficult because of Athens’ changing population.

“The public education is always difficult,” she said.

But the city promotes environmental awareness for new students every year, such as presentations in classes by city workers, she said.

Council might pass an ordinance that compels residents to sort their garbage by each material in the future, Bain said.

“It’s too hard to enforce it right now,” she said “It’s possible (to pass the ordinance) but not right now, not (in) the near future.”