For National Recycling Week, Starkville Recycling and the City of Starkville have teamed up to promote recycling throughout Starkville and Mississippi State University.
To celebrate the most recent project, Starkville Recycling will host a ribbon cutting Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. to celebrate curbside recycling, which offers free curbside pickup for single family homes in the Starkville community.
Eric Parker, Ward 3 alderman and head of the Starkville Recycling Committee, said the ceremony is a time to not only celebrate the project, but to promote curbside recycling to the Starkville community.
“This is the first free curbside recycling project in the state, so we want to celebrate that it is in Starkville,” he said.
Parker said about 1,000 people in Starkville have signed up for the curbside recycling project, which is about 18 percent of households in the city.
“Currently, we are trying to make [curbside recycling] more accessible to the community,” he said. “At the ribbon cutting, we will have a place set up for people to sign up for [curbside recycling] and get their bags.”
Nisreen Cain, Green Starkville founder, said the number of households signed up has exceeded her expectations.
“We have had a good turning, but we still need a lot more [residents] to participate, but this is a good start of Starkville,” she said.
Joseph Bell, part owner and manager of Starkville Recycling, said its goal is have as many people as possible participate in the program.
“It is going to take time to get everyone involved, but it is going great so far,” he said.
Parker said the city’s plan is to unveil a new project each month to keep recycling on people’s minds in Starkville.
In October, the city started the curbside recycling project, but the project does not reach everyone yet.
“We are working on how we can allow apartment residents to recycle,” he said. “We tested a few areas to see what the best way would be for people that live in apartments to recycle.”
Bell said Starkville Recycling has started trial programs at apartment complexes and thinks there will soon be a program for apartment residents as well.
“There are a lot of people renting apartments, so they should be put in the same category as curbside recyclers,” he said. “We may not be able to pick up each person’s recyclables, but to at least have drop-offs at the apartment complexes would help.”
During November, the city distributed recycling bags to downtown merchants, so businesses have the opportunity to recycle.
Parker said the goal for December is to place recycling bins on Main Street in downtown Starkville so when residents are eating and shopping downtown, they can recycle.
Parker said the most important thing is to make sure the Starkville community is aware of the efforts the city is making to go green.
“The biggest thing we need to do is educate [the community],” Parker said.
Bell said although the community is not as involved as the city hoped, Starkville Recycling is already processing over 360 tons of recycling each month.
“Hopefully, we will start taking new items soon. The only items we do not take right now is glass and tire recycling,” Bell said.
Cain said Green Starkville is working to get a glass recycling drive started during National Recycling week, with a drop off site on Highway 12 where residents can take glass items.