It’s kind of a generational thing,” Ron Cook, owner of People for a Better Tomorrow Curbside Recycling, said about the current situation with recycling. “It seems like when I first started [my business], there were still a lot of young people . . . that weren’t really educated on it, but now it’s so stapled in schools that it seems like everyone understands.”
Cook started PBT in 2000 and has since grown to over 730 clients. One reason for the company’s current growth is because recycling bins in the city are starting to be taken away for various reasons. Two popular recycling bins once located outside of local Krogers, one at Northfield and Broad and the other on Middle Tennessee Boulevard, have been removed.##M[read more]##
“Not all Krogers are getting rid of recycling bins,” Melissa Eads, with Kroger Public Affairs, said, “Due to many circumstances, it is no longer feasible to maintain these recycling bins. But we will continue to provide the service at the Kroger on Sam Ridley Parkway.”
A local Kroger manager said the fees to keep the bins doubled, and that the city wanted site surveys to be taken.
Whatever the reason, Cook doesn’t think it’s anybody’s fault but our own.
“It’s basically just negligence on the public’s part,” he said. “It’s unfortunate that it’s that way because Kroger didn’t mind having [the bins], but they just got tired of the eyesore they created. I went by one once and there were dead animals in it. People really abused it.
There are still some locations to drop off recyclables around Murfreesboro, but Kroger was the only place to leave many types of plastics, they accepted No. 1 – 7. The smaller plastic bottles, are a No. 1 or 2 and one can usually find a place to drop these, but the higher numbers must be dropped elsewhere now.
Then again, you could just have Cook pick them up.
“I probably pick up close to 200 houses a day,” Cook said.
After Cook sorts through the waste, he takes it to Alliance Recycling where the recyclables are then baled and resold to companies, like Coca-Cola, for reuse.
If you aren’t already recycling, it’s never too late to start helping our Earth save a little energy. We live in a county that has a lot of other counties’ trash coming to it, so it’s always a good idea to find ways to cut back on its growth.
“If we don’t cut down on our landfills, though they do a really good job nowadays of containing them, you can’t help there being leaks,” Cook said, “because even in the recent past they’ve had leaks at the landfill here in town.”
He said recycling also saves a great deal of energy but many people are simply too lazy to recycle.
“They think it takes too much time, or it’s not their normal routine,” Cook said. “And it’s kind of why I started the service; to try and make it as easy as possible so that nobody had an excuse.
For more information on recycling and saving energy, visit pbtrecycle.com or alliancerecycling.com.
