For about 25 years, Clarke County has made a way to dispose of recyclable waste, benefiting both the environment and community.
Located at 151 Harris Avenue in Quitman, the recycling area already has multiple people who take advantage of the recycling services provided.
“People bring stuff over all the time,” informed City of Quitman worker Andy Reese. “We have loyal people who have brought stuff for years.”
There are different things that are accepted at the recycling center in Quitman.
“We take cardboard boxes, aluminum cans, plastic water bottles, milk jugs, magazines, and newspaper,” added Reese. “We take just about anything.”
However, there are some things that they are unable to accept.
“We don’t take paint cans or aerosol cans,” explained Reese. “We don’t take any kind of chemical bottles, such as dish detergent, laundry detergent, or Clorox. We don’t take tires. We don’t do any glass. It’s just not worth it with the glass. We tried it years ago, and it was just a dead expense.”
Not only are people in the county able to bring their recycling to the building during the day from 7:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m., but they also go around to the different businesses in Quitman on Wednesday mornings to collect recycling.
“On Wednesdays, we pick it up,” expressed City of Quitman worker Larry Harper, referred to as Garfield at work. “I usually collect from businesses and stores. It’s usually businesses: A&M, the nursing home, Archusa Quick Stop, the hospital, the Tribune, and the liquor store. Basically, anywhere that’s a business that has cardboard boxes or recyclable items, I can pick them up.”
When they collect the material, Garfield has a routine that he typically goes through in order to prepare the recyclable materials to be sent away.
“Once I get everything to go through, I separate the bottles and milk jugs,” described Garfield. “I take the tops off of every single one of them. I take all the tops off the milk jugs and put the jugs somewhere to go into a baler by themselves. I take the tops of the water bottles, two liter coke bottles, and any other clear bottles like coke bottles and put the bottles into their own thing to go into a baler by themselves. I put all the tops in a pail. If I have enough and have time, I’ll do a bale of plastic bottles. It usually takes a lot of plastic bottles to make a bale. I mainly bale up cardboard. On a good week, I usually average about three bales of cardboard a week. During times like now when school is out, I can average about two bales a week.”
Although it may not be much, the recycling center does have some positive benefits for the area.
“We sell the bales to a company and put that back into the fund to keep it flowing,” explained Reese. “It’s really not a big money-making operation; it’s pretty much break even, but it keeps stuff out of the landfill. That’s a big plus. People may not think we’re making much out of this, but in a way we are. We’re not having to pay a landfill to take on so much weight. We are getting something out of it. There are two ways to look at it: We’re not paying the landfill to take it, and we’re not throwing it in the landfill somewhere. Some of the stuff brings in a pretty good bit, and some of it is up and down monthly.”
They send the loads to places that will reuse the materials for other things.
“A lot of the cardboard goes to Sumrall, Mississippi, or Atlas Roofing. Atlas Roofing picks it up and uses it in their shingles somehow,” declared Reese. “I learned three years ago, that they actually take the milk jugs and make park benches out of them.”
The recycling area in Quitman is a great opportunity for citizens in the county to take care of some of their waste in a cleaner way.
