Recycling

[dl meckes]

Earth Day will be celebrated in Lakewood Park on May 6th, from noon to 4 PM and that makes me think about recycling.

Recycling is becoming a more focused issue in Lakewood with council members Mary Louise Madigan leading recycling advocacy and education for the Gold Coast buildings and Michael Dever leading mixed paper and cardboard recycling for all residents.

We're huge advocates of recycling and we keep boxes (or paper bags) under our desks so paper recycling requires little effort or thought. We have bags to collect paper that has been shredded. We keep a box in the kitchen for cardboard recycling. We have another box near where we read the newspaper so that can be easily collected.

We also have a handy bag in the kitchen for bottles, cans and plastic (right next to the waste can).

Recycling paper and cardboard earns the city money and reduces the cost and amount of stuff that goes to landfill.

I'm looking for other ideas about recycling.

$165,688 was generated by the 14% of Lakewoodites who recycle paper and cardboard. Dever reports, "If we were to recycle 90% of our paper fiber we could reduce our tonnage of solid waste sent to Landfills and save $495,000.00. Additionally, the City would generate from the Paper Co-op program $513,000.00, for a net value of Paper fiber at $1,008,000.00.

I also wonder if we couldn't find ways through recycling to earn the city some extra money.

One suggestion I have is that people who do not live in Lakewood could be offered a chance to recycle here (since Cleveland no longer recycles). What if we charged Cleveland residents a small yearly fee to get a recycling pass so they may bring their paper and cardboard to our recycling facility? What if we just offered that ammenity for free and found ways to get the word out that Lakewood welcomes paper & cardboard recycling from Cleveland residents?