It's About Time — Dave Petri

When we moved to Mount Airy seven years ago, my family and I had to make several adjustments. We had moved here from southern California and many of the things we took for granted were no longer available or at least not conveniently available. Of course, in some situations, we quickly realized that some things were not nearly as important as we thought – perhaps allowing us to enjoy them more when we could eventually partake in them again (e.g. Starbucks, sushi, the beach, Trader Joes, etc). One thing, however, that was a huge shock to us was the lack of curbside recycling. We were not aware that it didn’t exist when we considered moving here. We assumed that in the 21st century, a city – even one as small as Mount Airy – would surely have this service available. We were wrong. What’s more, upon arrival and after collecting and collapsing all of our moving boxes I had difficulty finding where to recycle them. I set out to find out how and found out this was not an easy task. After asking several people, I discovered the city had a drop off center, albeit it was limited in what it would accept and when it was open.

My Mission

At this point, I realize I had a new calling. Mount Airy needed to have curbside recycling and I was going to do what I could to make that happen. Initially, I started out by writing letters to the editor of the local paper, but soon found out that those typically fell on deaf ears and more importantly when written by a known outsider quite honestly were ignored.Fortunately, a real opportunity came in 2007 when Cole Younger, a high school student from my church, went before the City Commissioners to propose how the city could and should adopt a curbside recycling program. Inspired by his efforts, I along with a fellow church member – Lorie Lindsley – stood before the commissioners to voice our support for Cole’s proposal. Together, we challenged the city to take action to improve its waste management services and provide better recycling options to the community. Although this did not result in immediate action, it did provide both Lorie and I an opportunity to work with city officials on a recycling commission. For several weeks, we evaluated the city’s current state of recycling and provided the commissioners with ten recommendations to improve recycling services. Again, this did not result in curbside recycling. But it did offer some minor improvements at the city’s drop off center. It also set the stage for what was yet to come.

Finally - Some Action

Fast forward a couple years later and the make up of the commissioners changed to include two key advocates for curbside recycling – Jon Cawley and Steve Yokeley. Together, the two of them set out to investigate how the city could offer curbside recycling – both convinced it was something the city could do. In 2011, their efforts came to fruition with a proposal for citywide curbside recycling.

Yet People Still Opposed

Yet there was still dissension both among the commissioners and within the community. As a result, the city called a public hearing to receive community input and citizen sentiment on curbside recycling. To help ensure adequate turnout and to help advocate the need, I partnered with three other recycling enthusiasts: Lee Daniels, Steve Lindsley (both ordained ministers) and Joe Lamp’l (a nationally known television host and sustainability advocate). The four of us created a Facebook page to get the word out and garner support. In addition, we each took a turn to speak in support of the city’s efforts. As reported by the Mount Airy News, the public hearing had 150 people attending in which 22 people spoke with 18 in favor and 4 in opposition.Citywide, the dissension seemed to boil down to a couple themes – one that had reasonable merit and the other that was a wee bit crazy.A primary concern dealt with the initial and future costs to the city. Of all the arguments against curbside recycling, this was probably the most compelling. It was also the main issue presented at the public hearing. Nevertheless, the city had a viable plan to cover implementation costs and control costs moving forward. So far, the implementation costs have come in under budget, but it remains to be seen if future costs will grow as feared. The opportunity, however, is for the city to continue to identify ways to lower total costs of waste management.In addition, there was a vocal minority who offered a more radical point of dissension. This group felt city-provided recycling services was tantamount to socialism. This, of course, is crazy. But didn’t stop critics from publicly criticizing my friends and me for our "socialist" views thru various venues including Facebook.

Success

In the end, the commissioners voted 3-2 in favor of offering the city this service and thus bringing our waste management into the 21st century. In the end, the successful outcome of the vote was a direct result of the efforts of many. In my opinion, five people stand out deserving praise. First, the three commissioners who voted in favor. Of course Steve and Jon were advocates and worked hard for almost two years to make this happen. Teresa Lewis should also be recognized for her swing vote that allowed the measure to pass. She heard what the people wanted and despite her valid concerns regarding costs still voted in favor. More importantly, I want to offer praise to two city department heads and fellow Recycling Commission teammates - Delmas Overby and Jeff Boyles. Both of them worked hard to develop the program we have today and the community owes them our gratitude.Finally, after months of planning and preparing, city residents started to receive their blue recycling containers at the end of January. Curbside recycling service officially started the week of 30 January with service occurring on a biweekly basis.Today, I placed my container curbside for the first time. Finally, one of the amenities that I appreciated in every community I have lived since 1990 was now available to me again.There is more to be done to continue bringing Mount Airy towards the realm of more sustainable living, but for now I am satisfied that we are moving in the right direction. Curbside recycling is another positive step for the community.As a Post Script, I want to also add that the lack of curbside recycling provided an opportunity for two enterprising high school students. Brooks Mayberry and Bryce Holcomb started Mayberry Recycling for Green (RFG) back in 2008. It provided a curbside service for residents willing to pay a nominal fee to have their recyclables picked up and taken to the city's drop off center. After Bryce & Brooks went to college the business was taken over by Carlos Hernandez, who ran it until the city started its service. MY GRATITUDE AND THANKS GO OUT TO THESE YOUNG MEN FOR PROVIDING THIS SERVICE.