New downtown recycling center caters to students

Chad Roeder is making recycling even more eco-friendly for downtown Bloomington residents.

His 4-year-old business, Bloomington Pedal Power, has partnered with the City of Bloomington and the Monroe County Solid Waste Management District to open the Downtown Recycling Center located at City Hall.

Roeder started Pedal Power in 2007 to make recycling easier for downtown businesses because the city does not offer curbside pick-up for buildings with more than four units. He and three part-time employees pedal across town, picking up recyclable goods and delivering them to drop-off stations.

Their goal is to facilitate sustainable living through eco-friendly pedaling. In the past three years, Pedal Power has collected over 700 tons of recycling in Bloomington.

“If just a few guys riding bikes can make that big of an impact, what could 100 do?” Roeder said.

In an attempt to answer his own question, Roeder is now presenting his “experimental approach to recycling” to residents, pedestrians and cyclists of Bloomington through the Downtown Recycling Center.

The city provided the space for the business, which occupies part of the west end of the Showers Plaza parking lot, near 10th Street by the B-Line Trail. On the 80-by-35-foot plot is a small office powered by solar panels, a utility shed to hold supplies and four 8-by-22-foot roll-away recycling bins.

Many downtown businesses and apartments lack easy access to recycling, which city Sustainability Coordinator Jacqui Bauer said is  a drawback of recent downtown improvements.

“It really has become more practical to help our downtown residents live more sustainably,” she said.

The center is still under construction but has been up and running for about a month. Although Pedal Power has been successful, with an average of 100-150 drop-offs each week, Roeder said the cooperation between agencies is notable.

Roeder and his co-workers take metal and aluminum to Bloomington Iron Metal. BIM drives the remaining recyclables to Hoosier Disposal, where the paper is shipped to paper mills and plastics and glass are shipped to Indianapolis.

“It’s as if we are inverting the paradigm of recycling hauling,” he said.

Roeder said a downtown recycling center has been a goal of Pedal Power since
its inception.

One group that both the city and Roeder hope to reach is the IU student population living in off-campus housing. Roeder said the student population in downtown Bloomington has increased during the last eight years.

Roeder said he believes many students come from communities where recycling is built into the infrastructure and expect the same programs from Bloomington.

Sophomore human biology major Jared Opoien said, in his hometown of Fort Wayne, his family recycles regularly.

In Bloomington, he lives in the Colonial Crest apartments west of Memorial Stadium. Neither the city nor his landlord provides recycling services.

“I am all for recycling. Any chance I get, I do,” he said. “The first step is being informed, and I will totally drive mine downtown now that I know.”