Expansion of recycling program would include all Bexley businesses
The city of Bexley could begin offering recycling at multi-family residential buildings, businesses and educational and religious institutions in the city limits.
“We’ve looked at other cities throughout the country and how they have rolled out similar programs,” Mayor Ben Kessler said. “We think we’ve come up with a pretty special formula to address this in a way that has the lowest possible impact to our businesses, our landlords and tenants and the greatest impact from an environmental perspective.”
City Council had the first reading of the legislation to expand recycling Sept. 13.
Recycling currently is offered only at single-family homes. Businesses and educational and religious institutions must contract recycle services privately, Kessler said.
“We have incidental information; we don't have holistic information” about the number of Bexley businesses that recycle, Kessler said. “If we could guess based on the survey that we have done, it’s probably less than 10%.”
Local businesses cover the entire cost of recycling with individual vendors and fees can exceed $100 per month. If the ordinance passes, participation will cost $12 a month through the city’s contract with Rumpke Waste & Recycling, council President Troy Markham said.
“This actually is going to reduce the cost for some businesses, because some businesses out there are actually spending a lot of their money to recycle,” Markham said. “This is going to get give them a much more affordable opportunity and an infrastructure to do that more efficiently.”
The ordinance states that the city began offering recycling at single-family households in 1990. The legislation states that the goal of citywide recycling – also known as “universal recycling” – is part of the city of Bexley’s Zero Waste Plan, which was adopted in 2017.
Markham said council has been planning for universal recycling for at least the past three years.
“I think we took a lot of extra time and consideration with this because it really does involve our businesses, our multi-family housing, the people that run that,” Markham said. “As with a lot of the legislation that we have put in here over the last few years, it really bears the responsibility to take time to do it right, think it out, communicate with people.”
Universal recycling is just one of the city’s latest environmental sustainability efforts, Kessler said. In recognition of September as Sustainability Month, he announced the city purchased its first electric lawnmower and will make Havenwood Park, 2425 Havenwood Drive South, a zero-carbon-emissions site in which the city will use only electric maintenance equipment.
“We will be using only battery-powered equipment at Havenwood – our mower, our blowers, our tree trimmers,” Kessler said. “It’s the first park that’s a zero-emissions park.”
The electric lawnmower cost $27,000, compared to about $16,000 for a new petroleum-fueled lawnmower, Service Director Andy Bashore said.
“It can run eight hours a day without having to be charged,” he said of the electric lawnmower. “It does everything that a regular zero-turn mower can do.”
Council’s second reading is scheduled for Sept. 27, with the third and final reading and public hearing set for Oct. 11.
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This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Expansion of recycling program would include all Bexley businesses
