Female Factor focuses on recycling

Published 11:00 pm Wednesday, March 14, 2012

If Alabama residents increased recycling by 10 percent, there could be 1, 400 more jobs in the state and Alabama’s tax revenue would increase by about $3 million.

Stephanie Baker, Director of Market Development at KW Plastics, was one of the guest speakers at the monthly Female Factor luncheon sponsored by Troy Regional Medical Center.

Baker said that people just aren’t compelled to recycle for environmental reasons any longer and it’s talk of revenue and jobs that are the big motivators.

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“Recycling generates money for our communities,” Baker said, mentioning that KW Plastics is the world’s largest plastics recycler and purchases material from the City of Troy’s recycling program.

Baker said that KW employs about 188 people and it hopes to expand that number to include 50 more employees.

KW purchases materials from all over the United States and even down into South America. Baker said that if the company relied on recycled plastics from Alabama, it would only be enough material to operate for two days.

Baker showed the group of women present examples of products that can be recycled, from cereal boxes to water and soda bottles and newspaper. And she said that Troy’s recycling program is single stream, so residents don’t have to divide up the products they’d like to recycle. She did note that the city doesn’t accept glass as a recyclable material because it costs more to gather and prepare it than companies pay the city. The decision was economical for the area.

“Recycling should be easy,” Baker said. “It’s as easy as putting part of your waste into a blue bag.”

Blue recycling bags are available at Troy City Hall, the Troy Public Library and the Colley Senior Complex. Bags can be placed out for pick up on a street’s normal garbage collection day.