Conservancy donates new recycling receptacles for parks
RADNOR >> When Commissioner Jake Abel and his wife, Kristie, take their four young sons to Warren Filipone or Bo Connor parks for sports, they’re often toting drink bottles or cans. And it was annoying to have to carry those containers back home to be recycled, Abel said.
Now people who use those parks — including the Abel family — will have new, blue recycling cans donated by the Radnor Conservancy. The conservancy donated seven of the $1,236 cans for these parks as a pilot program, said Gretchen Groebel, executive director. The conservancy also plans to donate recycling cans to the Wayne business district soon.
“This is a trial,” said Groebel. “If it’s well received, the conservancy is more than ready to help the township [with cans in other parks].”
Groebel said the conservancy has interns, juniors from Radnor High School who have been focusing on recycling: Sara Takenaka, Abigail Idiculla and Keara Seasholtz. The interns also designed a poster about what can be recycled and what cannot that is being hung in the high school to help with recycling efforts there, she said.
Steve McNelis, director of public works for Radnor, said years back, when recycling began, the township was paid for its recyclables, but now it must pay $43 a ton. The main reason is that China has stopped taking plastic, McNelis said.
“You don’t want to send it to the landfills,” said Groebel about items that can be recycled. “It ends up in the ocean.”
Trash, meanwhile, costs the township $33 a ton to dispose of, but that will be rise to $53 a ton next year. Previous efforts to separate trash from recyclables in the parks failed because people put trash into recycling containers, McNelis said.
Laura Luker, conservancy president, said these new cans are see-through, so people will be able to tell they are only for recyclables.
“You don’t want to put trash in these, just recyclables,” she said.
The new cans are for empty bottles and cans with caps removed.
“It was a no-brainer,” said Abel about the new recycling cans. “And we’re teaching the kids to be good stewards of the environment.”