LEXINGTON, Ky. -- A pilot recycling program at three Lexington, Ky.-area Speedway convenience stores proved so successful the company has expanded the program to 13 other stores, Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry and Speedway SuperAmerica (SSA) officials announced yesterday.
"Many Lexington citizens believe in recycling and take advantage of opportunities to recycle whenever possible," Newberry said. "I want to commend Speedway for working with us to expand recycling at its facilities in the Lexington area."
The pilot program began last May and was initiated by two interns, [image-nocss] Elizabeth Rebmann and Natalie Cooke, who were working in the city's Division of Waste Management. A random sampling of waste collected at Speedway stores was followed by a trash audit at each store. That audit found 45% of the materials collected were recyclable.
During a 10-week pilot period, the stores recycled more than 2,200 pounds of materials. Recyclable items include plastic beverage bottles, aluminum cans, newspapers or magazines (no glass containers).
"At Speedway SuperAmerica, environmental stewardship is one of our core values. The beauty of this program is in its simplicity; everyone can help," said Tony Kenney, SSA president. "This is a great example of an initiative in which one person truly can make a difference. We care about the footprint we leave on the environment and we hope to make it a little easier for others to care, as well."
The expansion of recycling at Lexington-area Speedway stores mirrors expansion of the city's recycling program. A waste stream analysis last year revealed approximately 75% of waste sent to landfills could be recycled.
"The council, at our request, authorized the purchase of new equipment for our recycling center that will enable us to nearly triple our recycling capacity," Newberry said. "Within one year we believe 80,000 pounds of recyclable material will be removed from the landfill stream each day, saving Lexington taxpayers approximately $1.5 million annually."
That savings, plus an anticipated increase in revenue from the sale of recycled material, enabled the Mayor to propose and the Urban County Council to approve a 10% cut in the portion of the property tax dedicated to garbage pickup.
The city sold $1.4 million in recyclables in 2009. Expanding the capacity at the recycling center could generate nearly $4 million in recyclable sales in a few years, the Mayor's Office said.
[Pictured: Mayor Jim Newberry talks about recycling program as Elizabeth Rebmann and Natalie Cooke, at left, and Nicole Elbourn, store manager and Bruce Whittaker, Speedway SuperAmerica district manager, at right, listen.]
(See related story onSpeedway SuperAmericaand a CSPTV segment on Tony Kenney in this issue of CSP Daily News.)
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