Detroit News: Recycle Here!
This was from Sunday's online Detroit News. Good publicity for an organization making a serious effort to not only help the earth by keeping plastics and other recyclables out of our famous Detroit incinerator, but actively contributing to Detroit's tax base, employment, and assisting several local neighborhood organizations!
August 28. 2011 1:00AM
Donna Terek: Donna's Detroit
Can-do spirit buoys Detroit recycling program
Detroit— One thing newcomers to Detroit often miss is curbside recycling.
But just because the city of Detroit lacks a comprehensive program doesn't mean recycling isn't happening here.
Every Wednesday and Saturday, scores of Detroiters converge on a warehouse at Holden and Trumbull that was once the Lincoln Motor Car Co. They unload carloads of recyclables into shopping carts, push them inside and sort their loads into clearly marked boxes.
This is the scene at Recycle Here!, the citywide recycling center with monthly collections at satellite locations. It's operated by Midtowner Matthew Naimi, 38, who campaigned unsuccessfully for City Council in 2009.
Naimi's not a big guy, but he has enormous ideas about living green. His contract with the city to promote voluntary recycling just breaks even and he also runs businesses that pick up recycling from businesses and residences and sell biodegradable tableware and to-go containers.
"I see Detroit being a green city in the future," says Naimi. "I'm not going to claim responsibility for it, but I do think that we gave people the opportunity to show that Detroiters deserve a green city."
Recycle Here! averages 750 to 1,000 cars a week, and Naimi faithfully tracks ZIP codes of customers. The city used that data to launch pilot curbside programs in select neighborhoods on the east and west side. So far, 25 percent of east side residents participate, while 35 percent of west-siders do, but those numbers are growing, says Dan Lijana, a spokesman for Mayor Dave Bing.
Francie Kennedy, 61, of Russell Woods started coming to Recycle Here! two years ago when her 8-year-old daughter chose recycling as a school project.
"We learned so much about it I've been recycling ever since," she says. "I try to recycle as much as I possibly can to help the environment.
"I was born and raised in the South. I lived off the land, OK? So I give back to the land."
The program recycles nearly everything — including TVs, small electronics, computers, even strands of kitchen lights — but not microwaves, chemicals, motor oil and car batteries. Soon, the operation that employs five full-time and five part-time employees will launch the "junk hole," a trailer chock full of free reusable stuff like toasters and tools.
At satellite neighborhood collection sites, Naimi takes the proceeds from sales of recyclables and gives them back to the neighborhood organizations for community projects.
The satellite program sets up in Eastern Market on the first Saturday of each month, Indian Village on the second Saturday, Palmer Woods and Rosedale Park on the third Saturday, and Creekside [[east side) and Clark Park [[southwest) on the fourth Saturday. Neighborhoods see between 150 and 200 visitors each program day.
Margaret Weber, 65, has been the coordinator at Rosedale Recycles, now a part of the Recycle Here! program, for 21 years where they see about 200 recyclers each collection day.
"You could bet your retirement account on us because if it was 0 degrees or 100 degrees, if it was the third Saturday of the month between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., we would be here in the parking lot of Christ the King Church on Grand River," Weber says.
As if all this weren't enough, you can come to Recycle Here! for the art as Forward Arts' Art Ride for bicyclists did recently.
The building sports murals by Detroit artists Marianne Audrey Burrows, Carl Oxley and Cass Corridor star Robert Sestock who painted a 40-by-60-foot tribute to the MC5 inside the drop-off center. Others are done totally in spray paint by Brown Bag, whose graffiti tag is Malt. There is also a series of recycled Ford Flex hoods turned canvases by Tristan Eaton and some glowing obelisks by Robert Reese from the Movement festival.
Naimi said he thinks artists are attracted because there is lot of space and empty walls to fill, but also because the people who visit tend to be a friendly, socially aware bunch and potentially appreciative audience.
And then there's the attitude of Naimi himself.
"Whenever anybody has an idea and they ask to do a piece here I want it to happen because I want to reward the people who are coming here... They come in, they can see something new and exciting and something to stimulate their senses," he says.
"We get a lot of credit for what a wonderful program we do, but in essence we're putting out a box for materials and people are showing up and filling it. I owe all the success and credit of this program to the citizens of Detroit."
Recycle Here! is open for drop-offs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesdays and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays at 1331 Holden.
