Athens is home to passionate environmentalists, a university with the largest in-vessel composting system in the nation, and a growing organic food movement.
But Athens City Council members had to admit this week the area is still lacking in the recycling department.
Council members passed a resolution Tuesday evening to include Athens in the Athens-Hocking Zero-Waste Action Plan, created by the Appalachia Ohio Zero Waste Initiative to reduce the area’s contributions to landfills down to zero.
“This region, we face a lot of challenges that other rural areas face,” said Erin Sykes, administrator with the initiative. “We’re spread out, so transporting these recyclables is a high cost.”
Sykes said the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has a statewide recycling goal that Southeast Ohio has been struggling to meet for years: keeping 25 percent or more of recyclable materials out of landfills.
Athens and Hocking counties are hovering around 14 percent right now, according to the 61-page plan. In 2009, there was an 8.8 percent diversion rate. The project began in 2010.
At the time, the Athens-Hocking Waste District had one of the lowest waste diversion performances in the state, igniting dozens of Southeast Ohio residents, who come from a variety of local governments and organizations, to craft the plan. They hosted 10 community meetings in 2012, and each had roughly 200 in attendance.
“Really, some of the main barriers and the lack of opportunity in Athens is around education and outreach, there isn’t a strong commitment,” saidKyle O’Keefe, co-chair for infrastructure and access with the initiative. “You don’t see a lot of campaign about waste reduction in the city, information is fairly scarce.”
Sykes said community members were largely in favor of the zero-waste concept, with priorities including services to collect hard-to-recycle materials, community outreach, access to recycling, and the prevention of illegal burning and dumping.
Some initiatives outlined in the report will take 10 years to complete, but many smaller initiatives already have a foot in the door.
“If people say they want it, which has been clearly voiced, that becomes motivation for city council or the commissioners to help that plan succeed,” O’Keefe said, adding the Athens-Hocking County Waste District may see a new recycling facility in the coming years. “I’d say about at least half of the steps are ongoing, or already near completion.”
Athens County Commissioner Chris Chmiel, co-chair for infrastructure with the initiative, said the county has yet to adopt a resolution on the zero-waste plan yet, but is planning to in the coming weeks.
“We’re working with the zero-waste folks to do a waste audit,” Chmiel said.
“There’s a dumpster behind the county court house, and people are constantly throwing away perfectly good things because they don’t know.”
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