Politics & Government
Athens Mandatory Recycling Program May See Revisions
The Athens-Clarke County Commissioners has decided Thursday that the Mandatory Recycling Program may need to be tweaked before going into effect.
may revise a recycling program aimed at reducing use of the in order to make the program friendlier to businesses.
The Mandatory Recycling Program, which was created to divert 40 percent of waste from the recently expanded landfill, has been criticized by some business owners as hard to comply with. Commissioners say that many property owners who would be affected by the local legislation have spoken with the commission about recycling programs they already have in place and how the legislation may cause them to incur unfair fines.
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Mike Power, owner of Power Properties, proposed during Thursday's agenda setting meeting that the commission try the program on a volunteer basis first before making it mandatory.
"I recycle old appliances and used furniture in large quantities. I found that this helps a lot of folks in this four-year recession that we've been in," Power said. "But the idea of us having a person to work a plan for every location that we have and coordinate with a staff member from solid waste — we have a reduced staff because we have a reduced occupancy rate because we've been in a four year recession. The way I read it in the ordinance I'm concerned about the fines. I pay over $200,000 in Athens-Clarke County ad valorem tax and I can't afford any more. And the fines are just more taxes."
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During Thursday's meeting many commissioners agreed that the language in the bill might be too harsh, and that the program might need to be further developed before it's put to a vote.
Commissioner Doug Lower of District 1 said he had spoken with the Athens-Clarke County Recycling Division about the program as it has been drafted, and was told that a recycling coordinator would have to draft individual plans for apartment complexes so that they could implement the program properly.
"We put this on a table list a couple of months ago and we tabled it so we could make some language changes to clarify what this ordiance was all about," said Commissioner Doug Lowry of District 1. "Since then I've spoken not only to Mr. Powers and his property managers but also to dozens of other property managers that are concerned about this and convenience store owners that would be affected by this. My feeling is that if you know before the ordinance is passed, that you're going to have to create dozens of variances and there's dozens of these sites that aren't going to be able to comply, making this mandatory makes no sense."
However, some commissioners stated that although the program might be hard to implement, it might be the best solution for Athens in the long run.
"Part of what we do in government is we look over the long horizon," said Kelly Girtz, commissioner for District 9. "We think not only how can we make things effective today but how can we make things effective for 18 months or 5 years or 10 years or 50 years down the road. When we're talking about waste management we particularly need to be thinking from this frame because we're talking about longer processes with the EPD. We're thinking about our landfill and thinking about the costs of landfill expansions, which we just had to do. What we're looking at here is the greatest way to reduce use of the landfill in the longterm, in 10 years or 20 years."
Dristrict 7 Commissioner Kathy Hoard suggested that apartment complexes be required to switch one of their dumpsters for a designated recyclables dumpster, which may cut down on waste. She also suggested that a more lenient implementation date be set so that property owners and managers could adjust.
Mayor Nancy Denson also suggested that the commission tweak the program before implementation, and said that she felt the commission did not know the issues surrounding the program well enough for it to be passed at the present time.
"We could require — and require is the same thing as mandatory, it's just nicer language — all property owners to submit their recycling plans or to meet with a recycling coordinate to develop a plan no later than May 1, 2013," Denson said. "At that date, or sometime in between there, that recycling coordinator would have discovered all the oddities and issues that we didn't know about enough to require something of everybody."
The commission tentatively decided to pass a plan on May 1, 2013, but delay full implementation until August or September. However, plans for the program will continue to be discussed in future sessions.
Hoard said during discussions that commissioners hoped to draft a program that would create the necessary reduction in waste without hassling property owners in Athens.
"Our goal is not to be punitive," Hoard said. "Our goal is to make our community a better place to live today and tomorrow."
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