By E.K. West

ewest@calhountimes.com

The City of Calhoun and Gordon County are making it easier to recycle these days. Both have recycling initiatives in place and are seeing a growing number of residents participating.

The City of Calhoun Recycling Center is located on 215 Pine Street. Hours of operation are Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Calhoun Recycling Center manager Charlie Pratt is excited about the growing response to the center.

"More and more residents are coming here to recycle. Sometimes we have a line of cars waiting. It is great that so many are beginning to see the benefits of recycling instead of putting it in the trash," he said.

The center takes most household recyclables such as plastics, aluminum, steel, glass newspapers, catalogs, magazines, phonebooks and corrugated cardboard.

Calhoun City Administrator Eddie Peterson stated that the center is doing well. "We have not done any comprehensive study of who uses our recycling center on Pine Street, but I would guess that at least 20 percent of Calhoun’s population takes their recycles to the center. Calhoun just may be one of the top recycling entities in Georgia. We land apply 100,000 pounds of sludge each day to farms in Gordon County," he added.

"I’m disappointed that the state of Georgia has dropped some of their recycling grants, but if enough public pressure is placed on the right parties, the grants could magically reappear," he said.

"The mayor and council are committed to recycling. During this last budget process it would have been easy to have scrapped the Calhoun Recycling center and saved $30,000. But they held firm because when all is said and done it’s the right thing to do."

"Mayor Palmer has instructed me to look into how other cities are handling curbside recycling. I’ll have a report back to him within the month."

"When you see Mohawk and Shaw go so deep into being green, not just money, and recycling you know there’s something going on."

Gordon County is also trying to cut back what goes into the landfill. The Gordon County landfill, located off of Red Bud road, is operated for the county by SanTech and TNT. The landfill offers ample opportunities for residents to recycle.

"TNT takes care of all of this for the county," said an administrative assistant for the landfill. "All residents need to do is be informed of the locations and bring it in. We have six convenience centers: Dews Pond, Harris Beamer, Plainville, Resaca, Sugar Valley and Ranger. We take cardboard, newspaper, magazines, detergent and drink plastic bottles at these sites and residents can bring metals, motor oil and car batteries to the landfill," she said.

The assistant also explained that as an extra incentive to waste-not want-not, residents are charged an additional five cents per pound for materials that go into the landfill that could be recycled.

"I use the City Recycling Center once every two weeks or so. The convenience of driving up and recycling what would otherwise amount to more than a dozen bags of trash is great. We use the landfill for bigger projects like batteries and old oil. Both are great resources," said a local resident at the Calhoun Recycling Center.

"It is easy to be green and cut down on unwanted waste. Now it takes a week to fill up our garbage can rather than a day. That is a significant difference for just one household," he said.