YOUNGSTOWN City, county and YSU team up to encourage businesses to recycle

Businesses can save or even make money with a focus on recycling.
By ROGER G. SMITH
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Businesses can save money and benefit the environment by increasing their recycling efforts.
That was the message today from recycling officials in the city, Mahoning County and at Youngstown State University.
The three entities announced a partnership that will urge businesses to reduce their trash. The Green Team, the county's recycling division, and YSU offer free advice to businesses that want to improve their recycling.
Recycling efforts in the Mahoning Valley need to increase, said Jim Petuch, manager of the YSU Support Services Recycling Program.
Those efforts will pay off, he said.
For example, a business can reduce its weekly trash bin pickups from three or four times a week to just twice weekly with improved recycling, he said.
YSU has reduced its trash pickups from five days a week to four, and hopes to soon reduce that to three days a week, Petuch said. Recyclable collections have increased each of the past few years to make that happen, he said.
Selling recyclables
Businesses can sometimes sell their recyclable waste and make money instead of paying to dispose of it, he said.
Simply recycling paper and cardboard will make big difference to businesses, he said.
Operations such as the Ohio State Penitentiary "supermax" prison on the East Side and Kent State University are working with YSU to increase recycling, Petuch said.
YSU also is one of 12 organizations that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will honor next month for successful waste reduction programs.
rgsmith@vindy.com