Press release from the city of Asheville:
Thanks to the success of the curbside recycling program in the Southside communities, which began in October 2015, more Asheville Housing Authority residents will have access to the program by year’s end. Asheville Housing Authority, AHA’s Residents’ Council, City of Asheville and Asheville GreenWorks are expanding recycling to the Hillcrest and Deaverview communities in October.
The week of Sept. 26, bins were delivered to residents along with educational material on how to recycle. Collection will be every other week, beginning on Monday, October 3.
“Residents in these communities want to recycle,” said Asheville GreenWorks community engagement coordinator Dewana Little. “If we make it possible and easy for them, they will do the right thing. They are always asking me, when will we get our recycling bin?”
Well the answer is soon, due to a grant from the NC Department of Environmental Quality and funding from the City of Asheville. Each unit of Hillcrest and Deaverview will receive its own 96 gallon “big blue” recycling roll cart, as well as a smaller, in-apartment recycling bin to make it easier to collect recyclable materials in the kitchen.
“We are aiming for high participation rates,” says Kerby Smithson of the City’s Sustainability Office. “We need residents that are enthusiastic about the program to talk to their neighbors and lead by example. That way we can all do our part to minimize the trash that we send to the landfill and create a more sustainable community.”
Recycling is “single stream,” meaning that recyclable plastic, paper, metal and glass materials can all be put in one container, and there’s no need to sort. For full information about acceptable materials, visit www.ashevillenc.gov/recycling.
A recycling pilot program began a year ago in the Livingston and Erskine-Walton communities. An average of 1,500 pounds of recycled materials is collected from these communities weekly. That’s 78,000 pounds of material not going into our landfill annually!
If this phase goes well, and given the available funding, the City hopes to roll out recycling to Klondyke and Pisgah View next year.
Learn more about recycling and sustainable living practices by visiting the City of AshevilleOffice of Sustainability webpage. For more information, contact Sustainability Analyst Kerby Smithson at KSmithson@ashevillenc.gov or 828-251-4057.
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