Thursday, February 5, 2009
Saturday morning, Andrew Stanley and fellow students took 145 pounds of glass to be recycled at the 12th and Haskell Bargain Center. All 145 pounds came from Wilde’s Chateau 24, 2412 Iowa, and were the result of one Friday night of business.
“That would all have been thrown away without us,” Stanley said. “And that’s just one night.”
Stanley, Overland Park senior, is president of Students for Bar Recycling. He said he began forming the group in December, but this was the group’s first active semester. During start-up efforts, Stanley said he estimated group members called 30 bars around Lawrence and asked them if they recycled glass.
None of them did.
“They just said no and didn’t want to say much after that,” Stanley said. “They said that it was just a pain, basically.”
Kate Wasserman, Flower Mound, Texas, senior and vice president of SBR, said glass recycling was the group’s main focus. Wasserman said the group was trying to be a source of information for bars.
“We don’t have the resources in group membership and money to help bars have the resources to do that,” Wasserman said. “So we’re mainly just trying to get bars connected with recycling companies.”
The group has touched base with bars around Lawrence, but Stanley said it had yet to sign its first official client.
Chris Scafe, owner of Sunflower Curbside Recycling, said if bars agreed to it, he and his crew would regularly pick up glass and take it to the 12th and Haskell Bargain Center, 1146 Haskell. Scafe said the charge for glass pickup would depend on how much needed to be carried away, but he would charge about $6 to $7 per pick up.
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Listen to a podcast interview with Andrew Stanley.
Stanley said it wasn’t likely the glass pickup service would happen every night, but he said most bars in Lawrence would use the service no more than four days each week. At that rate, Stanley said it would probably cost a bar about $1,200 each year for the recycling service.
Scafe said many bars didn’t want to deal with the logistics of storing glass, working out pickups and training staff to make sure everything was placed in the correct containers.
“There’s not much of a financial incentive for bars to recycle,” Scafe said. “But having said that, I think that if they advertised that they recycled, that will bring in a certain clientele.”
Stanley said one way the group would affiliate itself with the bar would be by displaying its logo in the bar window. It would signal to customers that the bar was a “green” bar.
Stanley said he hoped an incentive like this would generate competitive momentum for other bars to join the network. Stanley also said when enough bars signed on he hoped to get exposure for the bars by organizing green pub-crawls.
“I really think this is an issue students care about,” Stanley said. “It’s a chance for them to show the Lawrence community that they’re committed to recycling.”
Scafe said if the majority of bars were to start recycling, collection centers in Lawrence could become overwhelmed with the influx of glass. But Stanley said starting in May, Kansas City, Mo., would have its own glass recycling plant. He said the proximity of the new plant would lower recycling costs.
Wasserman said she hoped businesses would have a better incentive to recycle glass.
“I’ve always felt that recycling is one of the easiest and smallest ways we can all do our part,” Wasserman said.
— Edited by Andrew Wiebe
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Comments
Group encouraging bars to recycle glass
I was delighted to see this article about the Students for Bar Recycling, and would encourage Kate Wasserman and her group to pursue the effort. A number of communities and counties around the country have created recycling programs that work based on restaurants and bars collecting and returning empty bottles. I'd be delighted to speak to Kate or anyone else about various possibilities if they'd like to give me a call.
Michael Greenman, Executive Director Glass Manufacturing Industry Council 600 N. Cleveland Ave., Suite 210 Westerville, OH 43082 Tel: +1-614-818-9423 Fax: +1-614-818-9485 Cell: +1-614-439-4768 E-Mail: mgreenman@gmic.org Web site: www.gmic.org>-
- Posted by mgreenman on February 5, 2009 at 10:29 a.m.
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