By By Adrienne McKenzie
The Atmore City Council and Recycle Now organization came together Wednesday morning with a workshop at Atmore City Hall to come up with a way to start a recycling program for area citizens.
Atmore mayor Howard Shell said many ways to recycle are too expensive for Atmore, but that there is one feasible resolution.
"It'd be ideal, but we cannot afford a truck dedicated to recycling in our town," Shell said. "We're still trying to get over (hurricanes) Ivan and Dennis. We still have a major problem in our town that we're trying to take care of. This all takes money. We have got our budget stretched beyond reality. But, I'm certainly not pouring cold water on the effort because we need to do it. We are talking to a company that does recycling. They will charge us for an 8X20 trailer. I will see what we can make work with the 8X20 walk-in."
Shell said there are a lot of things that are recycled that go unknown.
"Any metals we pick up on the side of the road, we recycle," he said. "We recycle paper, used oils, tires, car batteries. There's more recycling going on that people know of."
Shell pleased Recycle Now members with the promise of bringing in the 8X20 drop-off site.
"We will work through it and see how we can make it work," Shell said. "It's a place to start. If this works it may open up a door. Let's try the trailer and say 'we've got it here, let's see how often we can fill it up.'"
Recycle Now is a new organization in Atmore that is devoted to spreading knowledge about the need for a recycling system in the area. According to the Recycle Now Web site, http://www.atmorewillrecycle.com, Recycle Now members are Atmore residents who believe recycling would be beneficial to the city both financially and environmentally.