America Recycles In Hilliard (and Franklin County)!

In honor of America Recycles Day on November 15th, we at the Hilliard Environmental Sustainability Commission (ESC) and Go Green Hilliard invite you to join us to sustainably recycle the products we use in our daily lives.

You may have read some disappointing recycling news indicating that many materials are or are not actually recycled. We are glad to tell you that recycling news in our Franklin County gives cause for hope!

Franklin County’s current recycling rate is 51%, which exceeds the national average of only 34%. However, we are not content to stop there, and we hope you will join us to increase our county’s recycling rate to 75% by 2032.

Here are some important resources to help everyone pitch in to keep recyclable materials out of our landfills (over 76% of the material in the landfill can be recycled!):

• SWACO’s Recycle Right is a treasure trove of recycling information in Franklin County, and more details about many of the tips and resources below can be found at RecycleRight.org as an overview. However, Hilliard has worked hard to improve recycling opportunities closer to home with additional projects!
• Styrofoam Recycling: Hilliard has acquired a Styrofoam densifier that allows every day to be a Styrofoam collection day in Hilliard. Blue bins are open 24 hours across from the Hilliard Municipal Building, near 3740 Municipal Way, and next to the Little League Fields. If the bins are full, you are welcome to leave Styrofoam behind the bins (please bag them so that Styrofoam doesn’t blow away).
• GoZero Composting: Next to the Styrofoam bins you’ll find green bins to accommodate food scraps for composting.
• TerraCycle at the Hilliard Community Center: Hilliard ESC Member Edward Cheshire has donated his considerable talents to Hilliard’s recycling infrastructure by constructing a recycling center in the lobby of the Hilliard Community Recycling Center! Here you can find bins to recycle candy and snack wrappers, toiletry packaging, pens, glue-sticks, and highlighters, holiday lights, and household/alkaline batteries, which will be processed by TerraCycle.
• Recycling plastic bags at grocery stores: Hilliard retailers such as Kroger and Giant Eagle receptacles collect soft plastic bags (not limited to but including grocery bags) for recycling. It’s important that the plastic bag be thin and soft, about the consistency of a plastic grocery bag. If it crinkles, it will not be able to be recycled through these programs.
• Recycling packaging materials through UPS: the UPS store on Cemetery Road can now collect clean, usable packing materials, such as plastic air pillows and bubble wrap for reuse and recycling. Popped or unusable plastic air pillows can also be recycled at our nearby grocery stores.
• Recycling light bulbs and batteries: compact florescent light bulbs and household/alkaline can be recycled within Hilliard at Light Bulbs and More (there may be a fee involved).
• Medication Drop Off: Hilliard Police hosts a drop-off box for sustainable and responsible unused prescription medication disposal in the Safety Services building throughout the year, with an additional drive-thru special collection once a year.

And as always, the Hilliard Environmental Sustainability Commission will continue to hold semi-annual recycling drives for Styrofoam, electronics, and paper shredding.

• Please go here to learn more about items that can be recycled in Franklin County!