Friday morning on Market Square, Mayor Daniel Brown and Governor Bill Haslam were joined by Susan Neely of the American Beverage Association (ABA) and Mike Edwards of the Knoxville Chamber Partnership to celebrate Knoxville's new recycling program. On the heels of the City's new household curbside recycling program kicking off on October 3, the Mayor and Governor were recognized by the ABA for their role in making the new program happen.
"We commend Knoxville for launching a sustainable program which will help make recycling a reality for 20,000 homes throughout the city," Susan Neely, president and CEO of the American Beverage Association, said.
"Through our work with The Climate Group, our industry is proud to support comprehensive recycling programs that address all recyclables, such as Knoxville's Do Your Part, With the Cart."
The vision of Knoxville's former Mayor, now Governor, Bill Haslam toward sustainable practices that make good business sense was the initiation of this recycling program. Mayor Brown and City Council have continued to support this effort over the years through many stages of research, education, planning and implementation.
"It is great to see household curbside recycling growing in Tennessee," Haslam said. "Diverting natural resources out of the waste stream and into growing markets for recycled materials saves energy, reduces carbon dioxide emissions and creates jobs for Tennesseans."
Knoxville was named a Model City by The Climate Group's Recycle Together initiative. "Knoxville was a terrific partner, and will add to their portfolio of smart municipal services a state of the art recycling program, which aligns with the Recycle Together goal of effective, efficient and resource saving collection systems," said Kate Krebs with the Climate Group. "As a Model City, Knoxville is a shining example to cities across the country that recycling is an important element of a sustainable city."
The City's original goal of 20,000 households is not far off. To date, just over 19,100 households in Knoxville have signed up for the new recycling program leaving less than 900 available slots.
The new curbside recycling service started for nearly 17,000 homes last week. The second round of cart deliveries is planned for early 2012, and is expected to take the total participation number to 20,000.
More information and sign‐ups continue online at
www.doyourpartwiththecart.com or by calling 311.
Curb‐side recycling is another reason Knoxville is a great place to live, work and play.