Photos by Katrina Weiss
It’s a little before 10:30 on a Tuesday morning and the Hub is humming. Although The Cincinnati Recycling & Reuse Hub in Queensgate has been open for less than half an hour, the parking lot is full as I pull into the last vacant spot.
Around me, trunk lids are up and car doors open as environmentally conscious citizens unload recyclable trash no one else will take.
Since the Hub opened in April 2021, it has kept more than a million pounds out of landfills, things that normally would be pitched with the rest of the trash. The list of items not eligible for curbside recycling programs is extensive, from a huge variety of plastics to metal to denim and much more. It’s a lot to learn. Luckily the dedicated volunteers and staff manning the drop-off center are happy to help you sort it out.
Feeling like a pack mule with bulging bags of styrofoam, plastic food containers and other items that I’ve collected from home and a couple of friends, I join the line of people passing through the plastic flaps into the drop-off area.
I’m immediately met by a friendly volunteer, Katie Burnside. When I announce I’m a first-timer, she scans my overflowing, unsorted bags and leads me over to Richard King, standing by a large cardboard bin of styrofoam. King quickly starts pulling pieces out of my bag, ripping off tape and separating the styrofoam chunks from the foam packing wrap.
Burnside sticks with me as we move onto bins for rigid plastic food containers. (Think prepackaged salads, deli meats, single meals and berry containers.)
We both rummage through my bags to find candidates and put them in the appropriate receptacles, then head over to an area that comes under the general heading “Soft Plastics,” and Burnside turns me over to Carrie Harms.
Soft plastics cover everything from plastic grocery, vegetable and snack bags to mail pouches to candy wrappers and much more. It’s a complex category and Harms is a whiz at deciphering what piece of plastic trash goes where. It’s not surprising when, after a few minutes of conversation, she reveals she’s one of the founders of Cincinnati Recycling & Reuse Hub.
It’s clear that Harms, who is the Hub warehouse director, is one of the people I want to have an in-depth conversation with. I contacted Hub offices the next day and said I’m doing a story on the organization. I revealed that I had already visited the operation to see firsthand how they are combating the mountains of waste we accumulate in the 21st century. Plastic is the No. 1 offender. How did this happen?
Although the development of plastic goes back to 1869, it wasn’t until after World War II that its use exploded. All kinds of manufacturers, recognizing the growing scarcity of natural resources, looked for alternative and cheaper ways to make and package their products.
Consumers were onboard with the price advantages it offered as well as its convenient disposability. Throwing away empty plastic containers became an everyday practice with no thought to the environmental fallout that would eventually come – and to the waste crusaders who would eventually rise to combat it.
Harms, an interior designer by training, was one of them. Her passion: passing on design and architecture leftovers and samples for reuse or repurpose. For a decade, she and a group of volunteers set up shop as ZeroLandfill Cincinnati in a variety of locations throughout the city and welcomed anyone to come and take.
“In early 2020 I had a conversation with Colleen McSwiggin, who had the idea for starting the Hub,” Harms said. “She knew I was looking for a permanent home for ZeroLandfill and asked if I would like to help her get the Hub going.” They and others used the shuttered time during COVID to bring their plans to reality.
Today, those design and architecture leftovers are offered with a wide range of other items in the Hub shop on the fourth floor. As the website states: “While you never know what you might find, we always have fabric, tile, egg cartons, clothing hangers, gardening pots, binders and office/school supplies.” Even better, the friendly pricing: You pay what you can.
Smaller household appliances and furniture are given new life thanks to the Tinker Team who refurbish items that are repairable. At the heart of it all is the Hub’s mission to recycle, reuse or repurpose as much a possible. Sometimes, that can be a hard sell.
Stephanie Cornett, who came onboard last August as executive director, is quick to acknowledge that recycling programs have received a lot of negative press in the past when investigations revealed that items, instead of getting a second life, ended up in landfills.
“We are very transparent about what happens to the items that people bring in,” Cornett said. “We have to build trust.”
Recycling partners are listed on the Hub’s website. Examples: Blue Jeans Go Green takes denim and recycles it into insulation; D6 takes plastic grocery containers that hold berries, individual salads, single meals, etc. and turns them into new versions of the same thing.
In the end it comes down to convincing people that many household items they previously thought of as trash are worth collecting and transporting to the Hub. And that starts with educating people about the impact of so much waste going to a landfill.
“We do a lot with school group tours and groups who come here and get their supplies,” Cornett said. “It’s about getting kids excited about the difference they can make.”
Another key initiative has been green events, previously held twice a year in neighborhoods with low curbside recycling participation.
“We send out postcards to people in the neighborhood and invite them to bring old TVs, computers and other e-waste,” Cornett said. Participants drive up and volunteers unload and take it away for free.
With 600 dedicated volunteers and a staff of 14, it’s time to take the Hub to the next level, Cornett says. “We have so much energy and passion gathered here and are in the process of visioning what our future might look like. Our new Commercialization Committee is working to create corporate partnerships for more off-site collections sites.”
Luckily, sponsorships and donors provide most of the operating costs, though new ways of earning revenue through more corporate partners go hand-in-hand with realizing future plans.
My own Hub experience was completed in less than 15 minutes, despite the number of people who showed up. I tell the volunteer crew I’ll definitely be back, because I’m sold on the idea Cornett shared a few days later:
“We are revolutionizing the way people think about trash.”
Consider this
When considering pitching something in the trash, ask yourself:
- Can someone else use the item in the way it’s intended?
- Can someone else use it in a different way?
- If it can’t be recycled by regular curbside pickup, can it be recycled at the Cincinnati Recycling & Reuse Hub?
The Cincinnati Recycle & Reuse Hub, 911 Evans St. (park in back), is open for drop-off Tuesday and Saturday, 10-2 and Thursday from noon-6.
cincinnatirecyclingandreusehub.org
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