Recycling Ready, Now What?

By: Kelli Safford

Whether you have been a long-term advocate of recycling, or have recently caught the fever, more and more families in the southeast area are practicing the three R’s – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. However, if you are in question of where to deposit your items, Keep Indianapolis

Beautiful, Inc. (KIB) has resources available on their website to direct you to the nearest recycling drop-off locations.

For items such as:

Steel and aluminum beverage and food cans

Empty aerosol cans

Glass (brown , clear and green)

#1 and #2 plastics

Newspapers and magazines

The locations are:

Brookside Park: 3500 Brookside Parkway, South Drive

Garfield Park, 2345 Pagoda Drive

Kroger, 4202 S East Street

O’Malia’s, 320 New Jersey

Source – Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, Inc. www.kibi.org

KIB has also developed a Recycle and Reuse Guide, which can be found at www.kibi.org. This guide assists individuals in determining where to take electronics, household items and clothing, just to name a few. SEND and residents of the southeast area are also taking their own initiatives to develop more attainable drop-off locations. Connie Ziegler, a resident of North Square, worked with paper recycling company, Abitibi, to secure a recycling bin for all paper items at the corner of Woodlawn and Shelby Street. Connie states, “Paper recycling is one step along the way to being better stewards of our environment. The city’s curbside recycling works great for paper and some plastics, but for those who don’t want to or can’t afford to pay for curbside recycling, this is a free way to recycle paper to keep it out of landfills and make it available for reuse. It’s also a fundraiser and the little bit of money it raises for our neighborhood association goes right back into beautifying and improving our community.”

Through the public space committee of SEND, efforts are continuously being made to increase the awareness and importance of the three R's, as well as work with the city to enhance accessibility for all residents of the southeast area. Public space committee chairman, Jeff Miller added, “The Public Space Committee is very interested in seeing more recycling options for the area. If we give residents more opportunities to recycle, especially in convenient locations, that will encourage us all to be more conscious of our environment and our need to reuse our resources rather than filling landfills. At the end of the day, we all realize we need to take better care of our world and this is a great place to start.”