Curbside recycling has arrived
By Greg Rayburn \ Editor \ grayburn@sherwoodvoice.com
Friday, May 2, 2008 11:27 AM CDT
On Friday, a two-man crew from Service Group in Heber Springs brought a truck to the Gap Creek Subdivision in Sherwood to pick up recyclables.
They were accompanied by Robert Cearns, Sherwood’s Sanitation Department supervisor.
Service Group provides weekly trash service, recycling services and parking lot sweeping in nearby communities such as Cabot.
The company started at about 8:30 a.m. and finished a few hours later.
“This is a pilot program at the present time,” according to Cearns, Sherwood’s municipal manager who will supervise Service Group’s operation.
Both of the Service Group employees said they were pleased with residents’ participation rate in Gap Creek.
“The national average of participating in recycling programs is 30 percent,” said Charles Tamburo, accounts representative for Service Group. “But today we had about 60 percent of the homes participating. That is very high.”
Service Group Foreman Danny Wilson said his company and Sherwood city employees distributed recycling bins to 250 Gap Creek homes a few days before pickup began. Residents also received promotional pamphlets about the program.
“We brought the small truck today because we didn’t think we would have so much
participation,” Wilson said. “Next time we will be bringing the bigger truck.”
Cearns said Service Group will collect recyclables in Gap Creek each Friday. As the program grows and becomes more successful, the city will expand it to other parts of Sherwood.
Cearns envisions its being implemented in all of Sherwood.
“We had several residents come and ask us what we were doing, and they were happy we were bringing recycling to their homes,” Cearns said. “Some people told me that they were glad they wouldn’t have to drop off their recyclables at one of the city’s recycling centers.”
Sherwood has two recycling centers, one at the old Harvest Foods store on Arkansas 107 and one at Louis Drive and Kiehl Avenue.
Cearns said residents who recycle will save the city money in landfill tipping fees but that the city is unsure how much.
Tamburo said Service Group keeps the recyclables and resells them for a profit.
He said he called Mayor Virginia Hillman a few weeks ago to sell her on the idea of letting Service Group pick up recyclables. Hillman said she is pleased that Sherwood is starting the program.
“This is a way for people to go green,” Tamburo said.
He said recycling programs are job creators.
“Recycling waste materials supports about six times as much waste-related jobs as there would be if the same materials were treated as trash,” Tamburo said.
He said recycling is a great way to help the environment.
“Recycling one aluminum can saves enough electricity to power a TV or a 100-watt light bulb for three hours,” Tamburo said. “Americans throw away enough office and writing paper annually to build a wall 12 feet high stretching from Los Angeles to New York.”
“Recycling 13,600 tons of paper accounts for the saving of 231,200 trees, 44,880 cubic yards of landfill space and 95.2 million gallons of water,” he said.
The program accepts these items:
Cardboard: boxes, brown paper sacks, cereal boxes, food boxes and paper towel rolls.
Plastic: milk jugs, beverage bottles and laundry detergent bottles.
Paper: newspapers, magazines, junk mail, shredded paper and catalogs.
Aluminum cans.
Cearns said any resident experiencing problems should call the Public Works Department at 835-3288.
