Changes...

Big changes have been occurring at the Alabama Environmental Council. (That may be the largest under-statement I have said this year!)

Most recently, you will notice these at the Downtown Birmingham Community Recycling Center. Through a new relationship with American Recycling of Alabama(ARA,) a Bessemer-based recycler operating paper-recycling for more than 20 years, the downtown Center will be undergoing a face-lift. ARA will contract with Allied Waste to install a 40yd compactor to collect and process all paper products in one bin. Unlike separating into Mixed Paper, Newspaper, and Cardboard, all fibrous paper products will go in the same bin. This will cut-down on staff-time tremendously with no longer having to stack, re-stack, and re-stack the cardboard. It will also allow for more material being collected between empties. We understand how frustrating it has been to make the trip to the Center only to find the Cardboard or Paper bins full and have to bring them home, or even throw them away. This will be a much more streamlined process. 

Other materials will also be collected differently. Unfortunately, we will no longer be accepting plastic with #'s 3-7. We've come to learn that those materials are extremely difficult to process and most have probably been ending up in a landfill anyway. There is not a market in the southeast for those materials, co-mingled like they are, and cannot be processed all together. So, we will return to collecting #'s 1 & 2's, separated. This will be awkward until the best collection is determined, but will become more streamlined, soon.

Glass will continue to be collected in a 40yd roll-off and delivered to the cement plant in Calera operated by LaFarge NA. Cans will also be sorted by Aluminum and other mixed metals. This had been started in the last few months, with separated 8yd dumpsters. We will begin to compact and collect aluminum in bales to be processed, with mixed metals being hauled directly to a local scrap-yard. We are also continuing to collect ink & toner cartridges, cell-phones, and Electronic recycling, with our partner Technical Knock Out in Homewood. 

Many of these changes are two-fold: making it more efficient for customers and staff and making the materials more marketable, hopefully adding value that can help with operations of the center. For many years, the Alabama Environmental Council has operated the Center at a tremendous cost to the organization. Yes, we get donations from the City of Birmingham, a few businesses, and individual donors, but not equal to the operational costs of the Center. This has been a burden and kept the Council from being able to sustain and expand at times. This new operation will help remedy that.

Other changes, of course, are in the operation of the other programs at the Council. In April, a difficult decision was made to lay-off the Program Coordinator.  This decision was financially driven and unfortunate in such a time of need for more work for Clean Air and Efficient & Renewable Energy. Fund-raising over the past year has actually increased, but not enough to sustain all operations and additional staff. The Board and Director made this decision to get on more stable ground, analyze our programs and campaigns, and continue re-building the organization. This new funding-plan at the Recycling Center along with continued growth in fundraising and fiscal responsibility will keep the organization on stable ground. The Board has become very engaged in this process and everyone is looking forward to an annual June mini-retreat.