Glass bottles for recycling (Anders Sandberg/Flickr)
Garten Services, a local nonprofit with a focus on providing services for individuals with long term mental illnesses and developmental disabilities, will no longer accept glass recyclables.
It’s part of a trio of changes beginning May 1 that includes fencing around the facility and the implementation of business hours–Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
“We used to be 24 hours with no gates,” said Chief Operations Officer William Posegate. “But we had to stick to more business hours. I know it’s an inconvenience but unfortunately, we had to.”
Can theft, Posegate said, was a contributing factor to limiting the hours as well as excessive dumping of trash that often included mattresses, toilets and entire trees.
“It was getting ridiculous,” Posegate said.
The decision to stop accepting glass, he said, came down to cost. Garten had to pay to ship the glass and did not man the bin for glass collection which meant it was filled with glass that could not be recycled.
“We were looking for, basically, the bottles,” Posegate said. “So, we just took it out. It was costing too much,” he added, noting that he wasn’t aware of many complaints about the service being cut.
Those still wanting to recycle glass, Posegate said, have options.
“People can also go to Mrtrashrecycles.com that has a lot of information on where to take glass,” Posegate said.
The Marion County Recycling Guide available through the Marion County government’s website allows users to search by material to find where to drop off their recycling.
-Caitlyn May
