Covington Officials MS “Field Trip”

Covington Officials MS “Field Trip”

Recently, Covington Councilmen Mark Verret and Patrick McMath joined Mayor Mark Johnson, Councilman Clay Madden of Mandeville and environmental enthusiast Ross Richardson on a “field trip” to the facility in Sumrall, MS that hand-sorts our recyclables from our garbage (Yes, hand sorts). Some very good news: Since our Recycle Awareness Push and Thursdays Only collection, Covington’s contamination rate has dropped from 50% to an industry norm of 30%.

City Officials talk trash in Sumrall, MS.

The big question: Why can other parts of the country / world recycle X, Y or Z and we can’t? It’s a function of population density. Single stream recycling works with concentrated populations.
Why are plastic bags so bad? To recycle paper-cardboard, it must first be pulverized by a machine. Plastic bags will not / do not pulverize, thus rendering the paper-cardboard useless. Also, any food is bad. Flies are bad. Rats are bad. Any food in your recyclables is bad. Our next step: Reduce plastic bags and food contamination in our recyclables. Not there yet, but we’re doing better. Much better!

CW: Thank you Mayor Johnson and Covington City Officials for your proactive efforts in addressing city garbage concerns.