Destin to stay green after St. Paddy's Day (with EVENTS LISTING)
Destin area residents have always taken care of McGuire’s Irish Pub. Now the local favorite is returning the favor.
During this evening’s St. Patrick’s Day festivities, Waste Management Inc. will be promoting its single-stream recycling system in the Destin area by placing a bin in the middle of the madness. The event partners are calling it “Turn McGuire’s green for St. Patrick’s Day.”
“This is something we’ve had in place for about two years,” said Waste Management district manager Domenica Farmer. “But through the economic downturn, businesses have gone with the bare minimum costs for waste removal.”
Single-stream recycling refers to a system in which all paper fibers and containers are mixed together, instead of being sorted into separate commodities (newspaper, cardboard, plastic, glass, etc.) by the resident or business. By sorting the materials at a processing facility, it is easier for customers to recycle and it lowers the cost of pick-up for the company.
Waste Management is hoping that McGuire’s can help influence Destinites to take advantage of the system and prepare the area for the waste removal practices of the future.
“There’s a bill sitting in the Senate right now that would require every American county with a population over 100,000, like Okaloosa Country, to make 75 percent of waste recycled by 2020,” said Farmer. “This is a huge step in moving our area, and the rest of the country, toward environmentally friendly practices.”
According to Waste Management, the City of Denver adopted the system, and the results were so positive that the project reached full implementation three years early. They began phasing it in in 2005 by placing 12,000 containers around the city. With a phenomenal response, calls flooded from residents who wanted to participate in the program.
In 2004, under the city’s old system, 16,000 tons of recycled materials were collected. In 2007, the first full year under single-stream, that number jumped to 26,000.
For more information visit wm.com or call 862-7141.
“We are proud to go green by supporting recycling efforts in the Destin community,” said McGuire’s executive chef Pat Grantello.
