Politics & Government

Recycling Registration Now Free in DeKalb County

The board of commissioners voted to eliminate the $30 fee for curbside recycling.

DeKalb County has just made recycling a whole lot easier.

Effective tomorrow, Sept. 26, DeKalb County is eliminating the $30 registration fee for curbside recycling making it free for DeKalb residents. The measure was approved unanimously by the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners.

“DeKalb County is clean, green, safe and thriving, and dropping the recycling fee keeps us moving in that direction,” DeKalb County Chief Executive Officer Burrell Ellis said. “We think that by removing the cost barrier and increasing education on how and what to recycle, our citizens will embrace it.”

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Super District 6 Commissioner Kathie Gannon agreed.

“Recycling is good for DeKalb County. It helps control sanitation costs, reduces the amount of waste that goes to the Seminole Road Landfill, and creates more green jobs,” she said.

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The DeKalb Sanitation Division has a comprehensive waste reduction plan and an aggressive goal to reduce landfill disposal of solid waste, increase recycling and divert tonnage from the Seminole Road Landfill. Through increased education about recycling, the goal is to increase residential recycling from 21 percent today to 40 percent by 2016, or approximately 64,000 residential homes.

Recycling is already available in all county buildings, parks, and recreation centers and generates approximately $600,000 in revenue annually for the county, money that is used to control overall sanitation costs.

Residents can visit the DeKalb Recycles website to get all the information they need to begin recycling. It’s easy: Sanitation Services will deliver the bin and bags to the resident. Then they just sort their recyclables, set the bin and bag at curbside on Wednesdays. By recycling, residents save energy and natural resources. For example, recycling one soda can saves enough energy to run a computer for three hours.

For more information on free registration and how to get a free bin, visit our website, www.DeKalbRecycles.com or the DeKalb Recycles Facebook page.

This is a statement from the DeKalb County government's communications department.


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