School, business joint metal recycling effort in Bollinger County taking off

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- The Bollinger County Senior Nutrition Center has joined with area schools to recycle metal cans, according to Paula Bridges, president of the Bollinger County Recycling Project.

The project is taking off, Bridges said, to the point where members have made their first trip to Cape Girardeau to sell the scrap metal. Proceeds from the sale of metal cans will be put in an account to help get the recycling project off the ground.

Although the Meadow Heights School cafeteria manager buys frozen vegetables as often as possible to keep from having to dispose of large metal cans, Bridges said the school uses enough cans to tip the scales when added to those from other schools and businesses.

Volunteers at participating agencies regularly save their washed and smashed cans until enough have collected at a deposit site to be sold.

"We're building a mountain of metal cans," Bridges said.

Martha A. Peters, director of the senior center, said she initially wasn't sure recycling there would be practical, but some of the women who work there were recycling already and volunteered to take the senior center's cans to the deposit site.

"The main thing is you know you are helping keep the landfills from filling up so fast and trying to do something to put back into the earth what we take out," Peters said.

Bridges said Mario's restaurant and her own business, Yellow Rose, recycle. The Bollinger County Extension office supports recycling as well, she said. She said many of the vendors who participate in the upcoming farmers markets, beginning in April, are avid recyclers.

"I'm excited to know that when they come in they will be bringing metal cans," Bridges said.

Marble Hill, MO

63764