On June 25th, the county will cease supporting curbside pickup of recyclables. But Infinity Recycling Inc. will keep it going on and on — with a little help from its friends, of course. In a collaboration with Infinity, the Town of Chestertown will pick up the recycling torch for its citizens.
“Service will be uninterrupted,” says Kees de Mooy, Assistant Zoning and Housing Administrator.
In some ways, the program will continue unchanged. For example, pickup will remain on Fridays. You’ll put your recycling out at the curb using the new white container that Infinity will drop off at every house that has a green container in evidence. You can also use your current green recycling container supplied by the county. But there will be a couple of changes.
“The changes are actually pretty minor,” says deMooy. “You have to register to
continue, and you have to sort your recycling.”
In exchange for the sorting, which makes the end product more useable, the list of what will be accepted in the recycling containers has been expanded. In addition to aluminum cans it will now include other metals such as beach chairs, pots and pans, and gutters. Infinity will also accept textiles – clothing, hats, handbags, belts, pairs of shores – though they must all be clean and dry and must be put into plastic bags to keep them together and separate from the other recyclables. There will be an explanatory flier detailing what can and cannot be recycled dropped into each resident’s green bin following Friday’s pickup.
The overall objective is to increase the town’s recycling, which diminishes the costs of trucking waste to the landfill as well as the tipping cost. But Ford Schumann, founder and president of Infinity Recycling, Inc. has a bigger goal in mind. Zero waste.
“If any town can get to zero waste it’s Chestertown,” he says.
Next week Schumann will make a presentation to the Maryland Recyclers Network based on that assertion.
For more information, please go to https://www.infinityrecycling.org/forms.asp?page=60883 and
https://infinityrecycling.org/default.asp?page=44386
John Seidel says
Way to go Chestertown! Zero waste is definitely where we need to be headed, and hats off to Infinity Recycling and Chestertown for moving us in that direction.
Troup says
Hmmmm…A collaboration of private and public sectors for make benefit glorious town of Chestertown? Hazaa!
John says
Its great that Chestertown and Millington are stepping up to ensure they’re citizens can continue to recycle. Now, the rest of just need to keep making our voices heard to keep curbside recycling county-wide!
Join the discussion:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kent-County-RECYCLES/115913541771572
Al Koblin says
Way to go!, Margo, Ford, Kees, et al. It shows us what government and private business can do when they are both working for the common good.
Brandon says
Having just moved to town a short while ago, I wonder how I’ll be able to sign up with Infinity as I do not have a green box currently.
Valerie says
Any curbside recycling news for the Rock Hall area or will we be having to take it to Sharptown and sort it into the igloos?
jbg says
I am so proud of Margo, Kees! It hurt me very deeply being “mother earth” and making sure everyone I knew had a little green container and had pressure to recycle, to know that we were moving backward and consuming more of our earth with our trash because the county did not feel this was important. My hats off to you guys and many many thanks from our future generations!
Marge says
For what’s going on re recycling in the other four towns in Kent County, go to the link that today was added above to this article about Chestertown recycling that was posted on 6/14. The linked page itself has been updated since I first looked at it today.
There’s info for residents of the other towns on that page (which is on Infinity’s website). Also, while you’re on the Infinity website, check out what can be recycled and how the materials should be prepared. These instructions are kind of hard to find on the website, but they are here via this link (which probably won’t end up clickable in this comment):
https://infinityrecycling.org/default.asp?page=44386
I’d also recommend browsing around the entire website—you might learn something you didn’t know, as was the case with me.
Dave Wheelan says
I want to add my thanks to the Mayor and Council for making this a top priority in Chestertown. Speaking for the Chestertown Spy, we are committed to helping the town motivate more residents to use this service in the years ahead. In the meantime, the new Chestertown recycling program shows real leadership on the part of both our elected officials and town’s administrators to find a effective solution so quickly.
Nancy Taylor Robson says
In response to ‘Valerie’ on Rock Hall’s position, Rock Hall town manager, Ron Fithian says, “We’re going to try to contiue recycling.” To that end, town powers that be are considering their options at the moment. One possibility might be going with Infinity, which has made a presentation and proposal to the town. Another might be buying one of the three recycling trucks the county currently owns that are out for minimum bids (which range, according to Fithian, from approximately $2500 for the oldest, $6500 for the next oldest and $25,000 for the newest), and using Rock Hall’s town employees to do a once a week or once every other week pickup that would be run to Nicholson. It’s all currently under consideration.