by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
It’s likely that when you were a kid, once or twice a year your elementary school collected old newspapers. So, for a couple of nights you and your parents would pile them into stacks and tie them up in bundles.
See, there was also a contest involved. The kids with the highest stacks got the coolest prizes.
That concept may have disappeared from schools, but as of today the local business community is getting into the paper recycling business on a citywide basis.
Wednesday, with former Mayor Jake Godbold and Keep Jacksonville Beautiful Chair Lynn Thompson at his side, Mayor John Peyton accepted a $5,000 check from Paper Retriever and formally welcomed the paper recycling company to Jacksonville.
“We entered the market a few months ago,” said Paper Retriever Area Manager Reginald Brown, whom Godbold made very clear is not the City Council member of the same name.
Brown explained how his company takes your old newspapers, magazines and other paper waste and turns it into cash for local churches, schools and nonprofit organizations. Over the course of the next several weeks, hundreds of big green and yellow bins will be placed in highly visible areas such as the parking lots of grocery stores, churches, schools and others. Once those bins are full, Paper Retriever will take them to a recycling plant in Augusta, Ga. That plant will pay for the material and Paper Retriever will, in turn, give that money back to the local organizations.
“That paper can be back in your hands within two weeks as recycled material,” said Brown. “We believe we can sustain some type of recycling activity in Jacksonville. We want thousands of these around town.”
Peyton said the recycling program is another facet of the Keep Jacksonville Beautiful initiative, which he credited Godbold for starting 27 years ago.
“This is one of many things he has done through the years and is one legacy that has passed the test of time,” said Peyton.
Godbold said he created the Keep Jacksonville Beautiful Committee because he was tired of driving around Jacksonville and seeing trash all over the roads and in peoples’ yards.
“Jacksonville didn’t have a lot of prestige about itself,” he said, explaining how difficult it was to collect garbage fees and thus how difficult it was to maintain quality trash collection.
Godbold said the answer was a joint effort between the garbage companies, community leaders and volunteers.
“The committee started the ‘Adopt a Road’ program and a lot of companies have taken that very seriously,” he said.
In January, the City plans to hold a reception in honor of the initiative’s official 25th anniversary — Godbold created the idea 27 years ago, but it wasn’t formalized until two years later.
Peyton said he was grateful to those who have been actively involved in Keep Jacksonville Beautiful and to Brown, whose company’s impact will be twofold.
“We appreciate their business and contributions to the community,” he said.
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