Recycling has never been easier! It isn’t just the in thing to do—it’s vital for our planet. It conserves natural resources, reduces the amount of energy needed to create new goods, keeps items out of landfills, and creates jobs. Did you know that over 76% of the material in the landfill could be recycled or composted?!
At The Cleary Company, Our Team is dedicated to doing what we can to compost and recycle. If everyone does their part, can you imagine what, collectively, we could accomplish? The beauty of this is that all the companies we work with are available to you, as a homeowner or business, as well. Let’s all do our part to reduce, reuse, recycle & compost!
Our Partners
We are grateful to be in Columbus, OH, Franklin County, where we have resources available to make composting and recycling easier. We partner with several companies in town to do our part. All these companies provide all types of information and suggestions on their websites to help us do better. We are grateful for their expertise and guidance helping us to #BeBetter and #LiveBetter.
The Compost Exchange does a big job with a small bucket. Their goal? To collect and recycle food scraps and turn it into nutrient-rich compost and soil. We love knowing that we are keeping scraps from the trash can or the kitchen disposal! And think about it—if you throw food scraps away in a plastic bag, it’s going to sit in the landfill for a long time, without decomposing. This low-cost option includes pick up from your office and home, depending on where you live. We found this information from their website really enlightening.
- “The average American family produces about 600 pounds of organic, recyclable materials each year. A simple change in how each household “manages” the disposal of these valuable resources can have a huge effect on our shared world – our soil, our water, and our air. Let’s face it, every day after peeling that banana or cleaning out the fridge, we place these organic materials somewhere – into a trash can to be taken to our already overcrowded landfill OR into a composting bucket to be made into healthy soil to grow food and flowers in our local gardens.”
Rumpke offers recycling and more. As one of the largest waste and recycling companies, we love that their mission is to keep our hometown clean. We try to keep our trash to a minimum, but we are in the business of creating new from old, and with that comes trash. We appreciate Rumpke’s ability to help us keep our office free of trash. Being able to recycle so many items is a true blessing for our planet and keeping items out of landfills. Their website is filled with information, including what can be recycled through their recycling pick-up program.
We also appreciate that Rumpke creates customized waste and recycling programs to fit businesses’ needs. Whether it’s a large quantity of paper, cardboard boxes, or a large number of recyclables, they will work to create a program that works for you.
But what about Construction & Demolition Debris?
Frog Hauling, you’ve seen their recognizable green dumpsters at our job sites. Affordable, well-maintained, and convenient, Frog Hauling’s ability to help us keep our job sites clean and free of debris is greatly appreciated. Even more awesome is their commitment to sort the salvageable from the waste. Every effort possible is used to recycle discarded construction and demolition debris. They are also the only Columbus hauling service the provides the ability for their customers to help recycle their property.
For their homeowner clients, when possible, they will remove metals, wood, plastic, cardboard, Eco items, etc. – free of charge. When Possible, if items are usable, they take them to an appropriate charity drop off location for you – free of charge. They do their best to recycle as much as they can. If a client bags their recyclables up and loads them in last, that helps them get your recyclables to the proper location.
We appreciate a partner who is also committed to recycling and providing an eco-friendly service.
Frank Road Recycling accepts and sort comingled construction and demolition debris with years of experience reusing and recycling materials in Central Ohio. As much as possible, they will sort C&D waste to remove metals, wood, plastic, and cardboard. Check out these interesting Ohio recycling facts and stats from their website.73% of corrugated cardboard discards are recovered.
- Every ton of recycled paper cuts pollution by 95%.
- Recycling plastics into new products save about 50% of the energy used to make new products.
- Steel is America’s most recycled material!
- Ohio is the second largest steel producing stat in the U.S.
- Steel makers recycle more than 68% of the steel produced.
- The energy conserved by recycling 1 pound of steel is enough to light a 60 watt bulb for more than a day!
Check out their rates and accepted items on their website!
What is SWACO?
SWACO, the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio, was one of 52 districts created by the Ohio General Assembly in 1989. These districts were established with the mission of reducing reliance on landfills. Do you have items you’d like to recycle, but don’t know if it can be? Utilize SWACO’s website and get rid of many items you don’t want to just throw away. On their website, select what you want to recycle and they let you know where to take it if it’s something you can’t recycle at your home or through your business provider. (Think motor oil, oil-based paint, pharmaceutical, compact fluorescent light bulbs, propane tanks, and more. )
A stat we found on their website makes us proud of Franklin county. “Franklin County’s recycling and composting rate, known as a diversion rate, is 51% while the national average is only 34%”!
Holiday Waste Information
And since this is the holiday season, we love the information we found on SWACO’s website to help cut down on waste this holiday season.
Did you know that 25% more trash is thrown away during the holidays? SWACO suggests these tips to reduce waste. Check out the link above for more information.
- Look for items with minimal packaging.
- Don’t throw away unwanted decorations. Donate them instead to a local non-profit organization.
- Compost trees and wreaths in Franklin County (Or your county if they provide this service) by placing them at the curb on your yard waste collection day.
- Create a new dish from leftovers.
- Keep food scraps out of the landfill. Find a free community compost drop-off site.
- Recycle your cardboard—break them down to save space. Recycle plastic and glass bottles, jugs and jars, paper, and metal cans in your recycling bins.
It doesn’t take much effort to compost, reduce, recycle, reuse and think about what we are throwing away. Taking a bit of time, doing some research, and reaching out to ask questions, will help our planet, our community, and our neighbors.
We feel that finding the right type of person/company to partner with is key to maintaining the fun, family-like character of our company. The Cleary Company looks for partners with similar values as ours. We are committed to being the best stewards of the Earth that we can be.