Recycling center reopens downtown

For the first time since Aug. 27, the downtown Bloomington recycling center is back in operation after reopening Tuesday.

The center, just north of City Hall, was temporarily closed to improve efficiency and labor costs from prior issues that pertained to shipping recyclables.

One of the changes to the center is adjusted hours of operation that are now from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.

“Sixty hours every week was a lot of time to be open,” Chad Roeder, manager of the recycling center, said. “The 10 hours we cut were off-peak hours, so it won’t have an affect on people recycling and it will save us time and labor.”

In addition, other improvements Roeder said the center has made are new cost-saving alternatives to sorting glass, cardboard and plastics the center receives.

Previously, the center used the services of the Republic Services in Indiana, Hoosier Disposal to recycle glass, a method Roeder said many other centers also use.

The center will now work directly with a buyer out of Indianapolis to recycle glass, which Roeder said is expected to save in shipping costs onward.

As for cardboard, Roeder said the center has started working with the Martin County Solid Waste District to develop a new, efficient way of shipping. Normally, the center shipped cardboard using their own box truck, but this proved to be labor-intensive and costly.

The center will now use a truck from the Martin County Solid Waste District on a weekly basis for shipping, only having to pay for fuel and labor, which Roeder said would also cut back on costs.

The biggest space-saving improvement the center has made is the transition from using roll-off containers to sort plastics to using bags, a system Roeder called modular.

Instead of shipping plastics once every five to six weeks like the center was before, they will now ship plastic sorted in bags that will be picked up from the facility weekly.

“We’ve really taken care of just about all of our main issues,” Roeder said. “I think we’ve taken the project and have made it about as efficient as we can at this point.”

Emilie Rex, assistant director for the Office of Sustainability at IU, said the center serves as a great resource for students living downtown due to the high demand for recycling services in the more urbanized location.

“We think it’s really great that there’s a close option so people don’t have to drive all the way to the Monroe County Solid Waste District,” Rex said. “We are really supportive of Chad and the recycling center and anything we can do to encourage students to go there.”

Follow reporter Brett Frieman on Twitter @brttfrmn.