Whitley County sees 46% increase in recycled materials during first year of new program
(Talk of the Town file photo by Jennifer Zartman Romano) Whitley Environmental, the company contracted by Whitley County Solid Waste to pick up recyclables in Whitley County, picked up record levels of recyclable material in the county in 2010. One of their bright blue and white trucks is shown above in Larwill last spring. This marked the first full year for Indiana's first countywide, single stream recycling program.
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Whitley County Solid Waste has wrapped up its first year with the new recycling program.
Whitley County launched the first county-wide, single stream recycling program in Indiana on January 1, 2010.
According to the Director of Whitley County Solid Waste, Jorell Tucker, in January 2010 the new program began with every household in Whitley County receiving a new blue 95 gallon recycling container. Along with the new containers came a new, expanded list of items that could be placed in the container.
“Now after 12 months we have deemed the new program a total success with 4,911,980 lbs. of recycling being collected,” Tucker stated.
That also means 4,911,980 lbs. of material was diverted from area landfills. This is over a 46% increase from 2009 and more than 23% increase from all records dating back to 2004.
The residents of Whitley County have accepted the new program with great enthusiasm. “We currently cannot gauge the exact rate of household participation however that could change in the near future. We are confident that more households are participating now than ever,” Tucker said.
“We are excited to see what 2011 brings us with more material and more residents participating,” stated Tucker.