Big Changes are happening at the
Downtown Birmingham Community Recycling Center
(Revised June 2010)
We are excited to announce a number of changes happening at your community drop-off center. Through a new partnership with Waste Pro, we will be streamlining our operations to make it more efficient for users and generate revenue on some of the materials for the Alabama Environmental Council.
During the second week of June, Waste Pro installed a new compactor that handles all paper products. Instead of separating mixed paper from newspaper from cardboard, all paper materials will be collected in this new piece of equipment. In addition to being more efficient, it will also hold more materials resulting in less chance for finding the bins full, which has become a problem in recent months.
An additional new partner is Brothers Recycling on Vanderbilt Road in Birmingham. The bin previously used for cardboard, is now collecting all aluminum cans. We also added a 30-yd open-top container, like the glass bin, to accept all mixed metals. In the past, we have only accepted steel/tin cans. However, through this new partnership, we now accept any type of metal product for recycling.
The Center continues accepting all types of glass, as well as electronic recycling including computers and monitors, batteries, ink and toner cartridges, and other electronic waste, except TV's.
Through this conversion, we've also learned that most plastics #3-7 are not being recycled in the Southeast. The center accepts plastics sorted by #1 and #2, rinsed out, with lids removed. The Alabama Environmental Council was instrumental in helping to expand plastic recycling in recent years and will continue to search for new vendors for those materials.
Please visit the center, soon, to see the new operations and support local recycling efforts. Remember, your membership and donations help make this a viable option to recycling in the Birmingham area.
