Renters pay recycling fee

by Aaron Reincheld
Staff Writer

Athens residents who do not want to recycle are not required to separate their glass, plastics and paper for pick-up. But residents who do not participate in the curbside recycling program still help pay for the program, said Ray Hazlett, Athens city assistant service-safety director.

The city-wide, $2 monthly fee applies to every Athens resident, not just those who recycle, Hazlett said. The fee also applies to people living in apartments.

Some apartment complexes, such as Carriage Hill Apartments, pay the fee before renters see the cost.

Although Carriage Hill pays the monthly fee for every apartment in the complex, manager Jerry Herron said no recycling bins are set up for residents. Renters have not asked for the opportunity to recycle.

Carriage Hill is not alone in not offering residents recycling options, said Tom O'Grady, program grant manager for the Athens-Hocking Recycling Centers, the group that runs the city's recycling program. Few complexes in Athens recycle.

O'Grady said a successful recycling program at apartment buildings would take a great deal of effort by the complexes' management teams. Thus, complexes have no motivation to start recycling.

"If you're running a complex and you have a couple dumpsters out in the parking lot that everyone's putting everything in them ... then that works fine," O'Grady said.

Problems with tenants putting garbage in recycling bins caused his crews to stop picking up recycling at some complexes, he said.

"Trying to recycle when people haven't sorted things is like unscrambling eggs," O'Grady said.

Riverpark Towers had recycling bins in the past, and O'Grady said problems with trash in the bins forced the recycling company to stop picking up at that complex.

Similar problems also discouraged Monticello Village from providing recycling bins.

"The tenants ... kept dumping their trash in it, like dirty Pampers or food garbage," Monticello manager Janis Sharp said. "Recycling wouldn't pick it up with trash in it."

Sharp said she hopes to have the recycling bins out again as early as spring.

"We would love to have all the apartment complexes on board, but they have to want to recycle," O'Grady said. "We have gone to the complexes, gave them containers ... and provided weekly or more than weekly collection if needed – and it didn't work.

"If they don't really want to do it, then I don't know what we can do to make it work."