Clean and Green cleanup

The city of Idaho Falls is working to clean up its streets and neighborhoods by hosting its annual Clean and Green city-wide cleanup initiative, and its main focus is to recycle unwanted items such as old mattresses, newspapers, cardboard boxes, and worn-out home appliances.

During the city’s annual Clean and Green city-wide cleanup, the city will place recycle bins and dumpsters at various locations around town.

Local recycling company Pacific Steel and Recycling works with the community and the city collecting recyclable goods.

Pacific Recycling branch manager Kevin Greener explained what the company does in the recycling industry.

“We buy products such as scrap iron, aluminums, copper, and braces from the general public and package them and sell them across the nation,” Greener said.

Pacific Recycling works with the city, counties, and fire and the police departments.

“We collect all the bins in town and help package them and then sell them for the city,” Greener said.

Recycling helps convert old products into new useful products. In other words, it is good for the environment.

Greener said there’s a true need for recycling centers in communities.

“Without us there would be a lot of product that would end up in landfills, and obviously we don’t want to fill the landfill full of items that can be re-purposed for something else,” Greener said.

Idaho Falls isn’t the only community involved in recycling. Pocatello has also worked on its own recycle initiatives. It introduced Co-mingled Curbside Recycling and E-Waste Recycling to the community to help with reducing the amount of waste that makes its way to the landfill.

Greener said people should look out for household items that can easily be recycled.

“Most people know to recycle their aluminum cans or newspapers, but things like old extension cords, maybe an old spring mattress and old washer and dryer, anything that is metal, we can recycle,” Greener said.

Pacific Recycling also offers people money for their recyclable items.

Greener said they re-purpose large amounts of newspapers within weeks just within a few days, they have roughly 45,000 pounds of newspapers that will be bought and shipped by various companies.

Greener said recycling is easy, and that he’s seen an increase of people starting to recycle within the community.

“I started with the company about 30 ago years and have seen a dramatic increase with recycling these types of products,” Greener said.