FAYCO takes on recycling

A local agency has worked in the past year with a committee of citizens interested to come up with ways to increase recycling opportunities for area residents.
FAYCO Enterprises has now stepped forward to make recycling available on almost a daily basis.
It was right at a year ago that the Fayette County Soil and Water Conservation District, along with the newly formed Fayette County Recycling Committee, began accepting recyclable items for four hours on the second Saturday of each month, as well as taking electronic recyclables on Wednesday afternoons.
As of Wednesday, FAYCO was offering recycling under a schedule of: 7 a.m.-6 p.m., Monday through Friday; and 8 a.m.-noon on Saturdays, with the Saturday hours being extended if there is a need.
FAYCO has set up recycling bins at the front of the storage building just north of its facility at 1313 Sunset Drive.
Bins have been set up for the following recyclable items:
• Newspapers, newspaper inserts and telephone books.
• Magazines, catalogs, and hardback and paperback books.
• Office paper, including copier paper, shredded paper, junk mail, regular and manila envelopes, and file folders.
• Stretch wrap, bubble wrap and other types of packaging wrap. Vinyl bags are not accepted.
• No. 1 and No. 2 plastic bottles. Drink, detergent and most plastic bottles are No. 1 or No. 2 plastic. Bottles need to be rinsed out and labels removed. Brown prescription bottles are not No. 1 or No. 2 plastic.
• Cardboard, including corrugated boxes, cereal boxes, paper bags and brown paper packaging. People are asked to tear apart boxes, to allow more items to be collected.
• Aluminum cans. People are asked to rinse out and crush the cans.
Kim Taylor of FAYCO said that several factors entered into the decision by the sheltered workshop for the developmentally disabled to take on the majority of the local recycling program.
“A sister agency of ours in Flora has been doing this for about 20 years, and we had gotten a call about us doing it as well,” Taylor said.
“Also, the soil and water conservation district here, which has been running the monthly recycling collections, has seen such a volume of recyclable materials come in that it wanted to come up with a way of offering recycling on a more-regular basis,” she said. “They approached us about doing that.
“Officials with the city and county had also approached us about it, because they had heard that there is a lot of interest from local residents about recycling.”
Taylor said FAYCO, a non-profit, tax-exempt organization that provides work opportunities for developmentally disabled individuals in Fayette and surrounding counties, chose to team up with its sister agency in Clay County to get the daily recycling collections off the ground.
“We need to work with someone else, because it’s hard for just one place to get enough volume for businesses that take recyclables,” she said.
“We are setting this up with plans to have more structure (to the program) within a month or so,” Taylor said, adding that FAYCO is looking for volunteers to help with such things as grant-writing and making collections at local businesses with large volumes or recyclable products.
Taylor has heard comments that FAYCO’s recycling program is being offered in addition to that offered by the county recycling committee.
“Karen Sanders and Tony Pals of the soil and water conservation district have done a terrific job of getting recycling off the ground in this area, and we are definitely working with them to take over much of their recycling efforts,” she said.
The soil and water conservation district will continue to accept electronic items and glass recyclables from 1-5 p.m. on Wednesday at its office at 301 S. Third St. in Vandalia. The types of glass include brown, green and clear glass, including broken glass; not accepted are home window glass, vehicle glass, dinnerware and ceramics.
Taylor said the request for FAYCO to take over the bulk of the recycling efforts “has been timely for us.
“We lost one of our major grants as of Sept. 1,” she said, explaining that the grant funds cover many FAYCO clients in the organization’s work program.
“Without those grant funds, we would not be able to provide jobs for a good number of our clients, many of whom have been in our work program for many years.
“This is a way to generate jobs for some of those clients,” Taylor said.
“This is also a way for our organization to work with the community in providing a much-needed service,” she said.
Also, Taylor said, FAYCO is hoping that the daily recycling program is a way “for citizens, businesses and local government to contribute to FAYCO without having to provide cash contributions.”