Business Reps Discuss Recycling Experiences

At the invitation of Tom Deverin of the Energy Advisory Panel (EAP), several Cedar Key food service and lodging managers and owners met with EAP members December 7, in the Library`s upstairs meeting room, to exchange experiences several months into Cedar Key`s new recycling program.

In his letter inviting Chamber of Commerce members to the meeting, Deverin expressed his hope that the Tuesday morning gathering could provide a forum in which businesses could "discuss the challenges that they have faced and solutions that they have devised, frustrations encountered and what they feel is wrong with the program."

Successes were reported. Janet Blackwell, of Seahorse Landing (lodging), noted that by increasing recycling, she`s reduced the number of trash bins Seahorse uses, thus saving $40 monthly, and Edie Zaprir, of Kona Joe`s (food service) reports that recycling has allowed her breakfast and lunch establishment to cut back to one trash bin.

As a larger food and beverage provider, Paul Rimavicus of Coconuts reported bigger recycling challenges and noted that where under the old WastePro contract, WastePro picked up overflowing trash, under the new contract he must purchase the special $2 orange plastic bags for any trash that doesná€^TMt fit into his WastePro-provided trash bins.

And frustrations were reported, notably in what Bob Cooper, of Old Fenimore Mills, described as the tension between "capture" and "contamination" of recycled material.

Notwithstanding Cooper`s and many of his guests` best efforts, the contents of a recycling bin can be contaminated with thoughtlessly discarded garbage. His solution - which cuts down on the "capture" of recylables - is to move recycling bins in the Old Fenimore Mills public areas some steps away from trash containers.

The few extra steps may mean more soda cans in the trash, but it`s Cooper`s experience that guests who intend to recycle will make the effort to place recyclables in a marked recycling container, even if the recycling bin is a few steps out of the way.

The EAP provided cookies, cider, and coffee - sustainably served in reusable cups and glasses and with cloth napkins - along with information sheets and other materials which members of the EAP intend to take on the road, to those businesses who weren`t able to send representatives to the December 7 forum.