As a comment on a recent post, a reader asked me a question about recycling drop-off sites. She was looking for a site to replace one that Concord Township (correction: Painesville Township — see fourth comment, below) recently closed. I wish I’d been able to give her more help, but what I found was disappointing — with few exceptions, the central Lake County drop-off sites have closed.
Evidently, our local communities expect us all to use curbside recyclables pickup. That’s fine, if you live in single-family housing. But if you live in a condo or apartment, good luck. Unless the condominium association or apartment management provides it, it’s not available.
Mentor’s recycling drop-off site: closed (Photo credit: Lenore Collins)
When Mentor offered drop-off recycling at its site on Center Street, I made a point of keeping my recyclables out of my trash and taking them to the recycling bins. But Mentor closed the site and removed the bins at the end of January 2012.
When I asked my Mentor council rep where I should now take my recyclables, City Manager Ken Filipiak responded with a link to a page showing local government recycling drop-off locations. In trying to answer my reader’s question, I checked these locations. Many, at least in central Lake County, have now been closed.
Mentor’s not kidding: the drop-off site is gone, gone, gone. (Photo credit: Lenore Collins)
Mr. Filipiak also mentioned that local fire stations maintain collection sites for aluminum cans and suggested the use of the Abitibi PaperRetriever bins for recycling newspapers, magazines, etc. That’s nice, but it still leaves us with our recycling bags full of plastic, glass, and other types of paper. If I can’t recycle them, they’re headed for the dumpster, and from there they go to the landfill.
I feel like a second-class citizen. If we don’t want to — or can’t — pay for curbside recycling or we live in multi-family homes and thus can’t get curbside recycling, well, too bad.
It’s not government’s job to do everything for me, but if local government provides a service for one group of its citizens, it should provide similarly for the rest of us. When it comes to recycling, it doesn’t.
How do others see it? Can we have some discussion of this issue? Does your community offer curbside recycling for apartments and condominiums?
Keep It Out of the Landfill 
Keep the Nye Road bin, please.
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Sad but true, Christine: the Nye Road drop-off site was closed on December 31 at 11:00 a.m. (See today’s post — January 6.)
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Has anyone checked out the one near Ravenna and 608? There is supposed to be one somewhere around there? Take Ravenna Rd. (old 44) heading towards Chardon…go past 608. It’s supposed to be on the left but I don’t know how far past 608 it is. I got the feeling it wasn’t far.
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I just received an email from Concord Township Trustee Connie Luhta, correcting my information about the dropoff point on Prouty Road (in the first paragraph of the original posting). That dropoff was in Painesville Township, not Concord. Concord still operates its dropoff site, at the town hall campus on Ravenna Road.
Thanks, Connie. I care about getting it right!
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We live in ward 1 in Mentor and have been recycling ever since we were married and moved into Mentor 44 years ago. We do not generate enough garbage to warrant a huge garbage bin so we buy the orange bags and use one “maybe” every six weeks or so. All the rest of our garbage is recycled or composted. When the small curbside recycle bins were eliminated, we took our recyles to the dropoff sites. Last February, Waste Management dropped off the green and yellow recycle containers and then a few months later notified us that it was a mistake and that we were not entitled to recycling. We have complained to the city, to councilmen, and to Waste Management that the new contract with Waste Management and the city does not include recycling for all. If we want to “participate” in the curbside recycling, we have to pay for weekly garbage collection, which we do not need. Our city taxes go towards reducing the monthly garbage collection cost for everyone but we cannot even get the benefit of recycling, just the noise and trash blowoff from the trucks that go down our street early every Monday morning for our street collection and many other days because of other collection days. Is there nothing we can do about this?
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One more comment. Years ago when the city of Mentor pushed to have only one garbage collector, we were very much in favor of it so that we did not have multiple garbage trucks going up and down the city streets all the time. About that time Waste Management, who became the sole garbage provider for Mentor, offered recycling for the whole city. It is time for Waste Management and the city of Mentor to negotiate a contract that will provide recycling citywide.
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Yey! We found a drop of for recyclables! You can get there if you take Erie St. (Rt. 20) heading towards Perry, but veer to the left (after bridge) and go up Fairport Nursery Rd. Just past Painesville Township Park and one restaurant. If you pass their fire station you went too far. You will make a right into the area. You can see the ‘hoppers’ (as we call them) all lined up, and they take most everything you would want to recycle. Cardboard, plastics, glass, metal, even mail (though my dad takes his mail to the Lutheran Church on Mentor Ave.) I saw some dumpsters with larger items too. You can also get there by taking Richmond St. and head towards Fairport. Go over the bridge and veer to the right at the light which will be East St. Take a right at 6th St. which is Fairport Nursery Rd., from that end. Follow it quite a little way, but a short little street (Post Rd.?) is on the left just after the Fire Station, and BEFORE Painesville Speedway. The only thing on this short ‘street’ is this recycle area! Not as sure of the Street name as I would like…however, though the green dumpsters are back off from the road a bit, it’s still very easy to see them if your lookin’!
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Sorry, sometimes I can read and reread and still leave a type-o!! Obviously I meant we found a ‘drop OFF’ place for recyclables! Hope this helps some of you.
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