Texas Tech University along with three curb-side services make up the majority of recycling resources in West Texas.
Melanie Tatum, Assistant Director of TTU Recycling, said getting people to recycle here in West Texas is an ongoing issue.
“Recycling is not a priority in this part of the world,“ she said. “We just have so much land out here that people would just rather dig another landfill than recycle.“
Likewise, she said items that do make it to the recycling bin are often too damaged to be recycled, too tainted by other chemicals, or were never “recyclable material“ in the first place.
“We have 12 to 15 temps working on a regular basis trying to sort through all of this because we don’t have the advantage of a single stream recycling,“ Tatum said. “We try to use every piece of things that come in as we can, but if it’s too damaged than it goes in the trash.“
Both curb-side services and Texas Tech ask that you clean, sort, and tightly bag all of those recycles, so that they can also do their part in cleaning up the Hub City.
Nick Nowicki, owner of Good Earth Recycling, said recycling is not a perfect solution, but it is a step in the right direction.
“It gets us thinking about what is best for the planet and our communities, and so it really is vital that we all do our parts in this process,“ Nowicki said.
