At first, I was a little annoyed when all the recycling dumpsters around town were taken away…read more.. being FORCED to bring our recycling to a single location seemed inconvenient.
After coming to the Citizens Collection Station, my view has changed.
For one, (and possibly the biggest positive) the containers have less contamination. (When dropping off recycling at the unsupervised locations around town, there would be tons of stuff in those containers that shouldn't be there: trash, plastic bags, plastic in the cardboard, cardboard in the aluminum, etc. I never understood why if you are going to make an effort to recycle, WHY you wouldn't do it correctly?!? MORONS! Now the whole container gets to go to the DUMP bc of laziness/not caring.) Anyways, I didn't notice any of that here at the Citizens Collection Station which is AWESOME!
Secondly, this place is fenced/gated and manned by a HUMAN. Yes, while waiting in a 6-car line to get in for the first time, I was thinking, "WTF?!" But as it got to my turn, I was a little more understanding. They want to make sure who comes in and that they are in fact, citizens. I known it isn't *as* convenient as the 24/7 access but like I said, there is less contamination.
Thirdly, there are MANY containers here. I'd day, at least 2 containers for each type of recyclable. Less chance of them being too full to put stuff in.
Fourthly, you can bring yard waste (grass clippings, tree branches, shrubs, etc) as well as large household waste: furniture, etc. Oh yeah, and a container for those plastic shopping bags that we all have only about 1,000,000,000,000 of stuffed under our kitchen sink.
Fifthly, FREE mulch if you want/need it. I don't at the moment but in the future, you never know.
So all in all, I am a HUGE recycling nerd and am totally glad to have this collection station. I HATED seeing all the contamination of the previously placed bins around town. Knowing that I was doing the right thing and it was being negated by idiots infuriated me... Making my efforts pointless.
The "only issue" I see with Midland's Recycling program is that it IS kind of a pain in the a**. Like, having to drive your own stuff to the center can definitely put off some people who'll not want to make the effort. I have always lived in places where both your garbage AND recycling are picked up CURBSIDE at your HOUSE. Totally convenient. So Midland's way has taken more time and effort on my part BUT I can't imagine throwing out recyclables. It's already weird to me to throw out GLASS. I've always recycled it.
PLEASE come visit this center if you haven't already! Let's keep Midland beautiful... errrr... as "beautiful" as Midland can be. Recycle
