DOTHAN, AL (WSFA) - Across the state, lots of Earth Day celebrations brought awareness to environmental issues. In the Wiregrass, part of the celebration involved officially re-opening one of the recycling centers.
“How blessed are we to have a community that wants to get behind recycling,” said Beth Kenward, Commissioner.
The city was close to canning the program because of costs. The city was paying $125 a ton - at over $600,000 in yearly costs to process recycling goods in Georgia, but with a new partnership with RePower out of Montgomery - they’ll pay a fraction of that.
“To about $40 a ton and hopefully as things change that number can be lowered and possibly even start making money,” said Charles Metzger, Public Safety Director.
The city is also creating a more monitored drop-off site.
Before people were using the recycling site as a dump. Now - it will only be open between 7 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. during the week and workers will sit at the site to monitor traffic.
“We talked to people who were really sad about them being closed down so we wanted to not only keep them open - but gate them, have them to keep people from using them incorrectly,” said Metzger.
About 9,000 of Dothan’s 26,000 residents recycle. The city also plans to partner with local schools to teach recycling education.
If Westgate is too far for you, you can also drop off your recyclable goods at the Recycling Center at the City Landfill off Burkett Road.