More residents taking part in Cleveland’s recycling program

CLEVELAND (WJW) – The FOX 8 I-Team has found a spike in the number of people taking part in Cleveland’s new recycling program. It’s a program that started after we exposed all city recycling was going to a landfill.

Ren Brumfield, recycling coordinator for the City of Cleveland, tells us that now nearly half of all households eligible are recycling. He noted that in two years, crews have collected a total amount of recycling equal to the weight of 133 airplanes.

“That’s a lot of pounds. That’s a lot of stuff that we’re not putting in a landfill,” Brumfield said. “So overall, we’re doing a really, really good job with recycling.”

Sarah Tan, of Cleveland, says she has been with the program since it started up again.

“I think it is important to give our young people hope and a way to participate,” Tan said.

She also started Recycle Old Brooklyn to help get her neighbors involved.

One concern, Brumfield noted, is that since more people are taking part in the program, more regular trash has ended up in recycling bins. Up to a quart of what some folks are putting in recycling bins should just go in the trash. So, the program coordinator wants to remind everyone to keep it simple.

“I keep telling them we need to recycle all of your metal cans,” Brumfield said. “Your plastic bottles, your glass bottles, your carboard boxes and paper.”

Brumfield told us that, over all, the new program is working.

“We started out with 27,000 people originally that first year,” Brumfield said. “At this point right now ,we’re at about 75,000 households.”

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