UPFRONT
Cid Standifer
CLEVELAND WON’T HAVE CURBSIDE RECYCLING UNTIL SOMETIME NEXT YEAR; HERE’S HOW TO RECYCLE IN THE INTERIM
CURBSIDE RECYCLING IS THE only kind of recycling many of us have ever used, and a critical part of the “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” mantra. But more than six months after the City of Cleveland admitted it’s dumping recyclables, and with no change in sight, it’s time to look for alternatives. Fortunately, there are plenty of places in Cleveland where forprofit companies and non-profit organizations will take certain kinds of recyclables off your hands. Armed with Cuyahoga County’s recycling website and an embarrassing number of empty beer cans, I set out to explore them. My beer cans and I went to Aaromet Metal Recycling, a for-profit scrap facility between some empty lots on W. 63rd St., where facility manager Bobby Lester walked me through the process. Ferrous metals – mainly steel –
can be dropped off by truck around the back of the giant shed, with the mounds of crumpled cars and old ovens. Non-ferrous metals, including soda and beer cans, get dropped off inside. If you’re not sure, Lester said, see if a magnet sticks to it. If it’s magnetic, it’s ferrous. Lester said he’s required by law to get an ID from and run a background check on anyone who drops off scrap metal – presumably to deter people like the one who used an electric saw to swipe my car’s catalytic converter a few months ago. However, there’s an exception for beverage cans. He said food and beverage cans don’t have to be washed. “We prefer [clean]. It makes it nice,” he said, but they’ll accept them grungy. Lester set my box of empties down on a scale built into the floor, then handed me a receipt and 30 cents for a few dozen cans.
“We normally get people in and out in less than five minutes,” he added. There are for-profit scrap yards happy to take metal recyclables scattered around Cleveland. If you’d prefer not to interact with anyone while dropping off your cans, select fire stations throughout the city collect them for Aluminum Cans for Burned Children. The organization’s website says most drop-off locations have bins with ACBC logos behind the firehouse. I couldn’t find a bin at Fire Station #23 on Madison Ave., but a firefighter lounging in front said I could just leave cans, preferably in a bag, next to the station’s dumpster, and someone from the charity would pick them up. Charities want your paper and cardboard, too. Two recycling companies, Royal Oak Recycling and River Valley Recycling, currently take in paper from about 100 designated dumpsters in Cleveland.
Melinda Valentine from River Valley said non-profits, churches and schools can ask to host a bin. Income from the first 2,000 pounds of paper and cardboard collected per month essentially covers the expense of trucking out the paper. Above that amount, Valentine said, the hosting organizations get $3 per ton for the next 3,000 pounds of paper and cardboard, and $8 per ton over 8,000 pounds. If a location consistently collects under 2,000 pounds a month, Valentine says the company will sometimes remove the bin, but they’re not penalizing offices or schools that may be closed because of the pandemic. The company maintains an up-to-date list of locations on its website. Sean Walter, the company’s vice president of sales for the Midwest, says that the material goes to cardboard and packaging | clevescene.com | November 4-10, 2020
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