Cleveland Curbside Recycling implements eco-friendly options on and off campus
Photo by Taylor Baker.
With the lack of recycling resources on campus and in Cleveland, Brittany Hill and Darci Wright founded Cleveland Curbside Recycling.
“After a long while of habitually letting the recycling pile up in our kitchen corner, my housemates and I had a realization in August of 2019 that we surely aren’t alone in the struggle to find time once a week to sort and haul the recyclables off to the centers,” said Hill.
The opportunity to turn their frustrations into a business sparked the idea for something bigger.
“We figured there was a pretty good chance people would be willing to pay for a service, so they didn’t have to deal with it,” said Wright. “From there, it was just about finding the right price point, creating a website and spreading the word.”
Early on in the process, Hill and Wright visited a Cleveland City Council meeting to discuss the importance of recycling. They shared their vision for the company and their hopes of making Cleveland a more environmentally friendly city in the future.
“We’d love to see an expansion of recycling centers here in Cleveland. Currently, there are only two, and the hours are pretty limited,” said Hill. “Part of our goal as a startup is to make it more convenient for people to recycle and to be good to the environment. Ideally, the city would be able to provide pickup for everyone the way a lot of the bigger cities do, but we do understand that the budget is limited, and they have been very supportive of us offering an opt-in model instead.”
While Hill and Wright work toward a more eco-friendly Cleveland, they encourage residents to take action in their own lives toward reducing waste.
“Another thing we’d love to see that we’ve been reading about in other cities is a ban on single-use plastic bags,” said Hill. “These are unfortunately not recyclable and account for a lot of waste. We love to see people carrying in their own totes and also using paper bags in grocery stores to reduce waste.”
Lee’s Creation Care Club (CCC) has also been an advocate for recycling on campus. During the 2018-2019 school year, CCC advocated for campus-wide recycling and collected hundreds of signatures on petitions and surveys showing the desire for a greener campus. With the help of the Leonard Center and grant writer Elizabeth Sanders, Lee received their first recycling bin located by Campus Security’s office.
As CCC’s recycling officer, sophomore math and Spanish double major Andrew Vick focuses on communicating directly with the recycling company Red Rock.
“Our vision is to make recycling something available and known to every student and staff on campus so we can reduce waste as a university together,” said Vick. “Currently, we have one single stream dumpster on campus [next to Campus Security]. However, it unfortunately cannot take paper at this time as it isn’t profitable enough for recycling companies to take. Additionally, a couple of the female freshmen dorms have organized their own recycling.”
More information about Cleveland Curbside Recycling can be found on their website. For more information about Creation Care Club, contact leecreationcare@gmail.com.
