WESTON, Wis. (WSAU) -- Saturday is America Recycles Day, where municipalities, landfills, recycling companies, and environmental groups try to encourage more recycling. One of the local efforts involves the Village of Weston, their garbage contractor Advance Disposal, and the Marathon County Solid Waste Department.
Solid Waste Department Director Meleesa Johnson says this project is more than a day long. “We’re actually doing a week-long project. We are working with the Village of Weston to try to increase their recycling rate and reduce the contamination of the recyclables they are capturing, and we’re calling that America Recycles Day-Marathon Recycler Event.”
Johnson says the Weston residents are getting random inspections to see if the right items are getting into the proper containers. “The route driver is going to be getting out of the truck and going over to the bin, looking in the garbage bin and seeing if there’s any recycling in the garbage bin. If they are, they fail. And, they’re also going to be looking in the recycling bin.”
Johnson says Weston residents that are doing a good job of sorting their recyclables could end up winning a prize. “My department along with Advance Disposal and the village, we’ve got a television to give away and a bunch of very fun gift certificates.”
There is information on the Village of Weston website and the Marathon County Solid Waste Department website that tells people what is recyclable and how to dispose of it. Johnson says there are guidelines to follow. “The village has ‘one-and-done’ bins, single-stream recycling, and while that’s really easy, there are rules. For instance, styrofoam shouldn’t go in that because it’s just at this point not recyclable, and even though waste oil is recyclable, it doesn’t belong in that bin. It goes to a different location for recycling. The same with tires.”
There are several businesses and charitable organizations that recycle appliances, electronics, and scrap metal.
Statewide, Wisconsin recovered about 831,000 tons of paper products and beverage containers in 2013. Department of Natural Resources Recycling and Solid Waste Section Chief Brad Wolbert says the average household recycled about 702 pounds last year, or about the weight of a grand piano.
(Listen to our interview with Meleesa Johnson on our website, here.)