In the 12 years since Teresa Baker has been recycling and sustainability coordinator for Granville County and Granville County Public Schools, she has seen a lot of things change. And most of it is because of her efforts to get the community onboard with recycling.
“It’s improved tenfold,” Baker told Bill Harris on Thursday’s The Local Skinny! “It‘s just been amazing.”
When the county started this program 12 years ago, residents were separating newspaper from aluminum cans from glass bottles. Now, residents can simply collect all their recyclables in a single container, what the industry calls “single stream.”
Among her many job duties, Baker collaborates with GFL, formerly Waste Industries, to make sure all residents have the service they need so their recycling efforts are optimized.
By informing the community about events like the fall and spring household recycling events she hosts, Baker said Granville residents are keeping a lot of harmful items out of the environment.
“We can reuse a lot of stuff, we can repair and recycle” to keep things out of the landfill. She said the upcoming RepairCafé workshop is just another way to keep items from being added to the landfill. She and Oxford resident and RepairCafé organizer Don Fick have teamed up to have a workshop at the Granville Expo Center on Sept. 18.