Honoring Earth Day Past:

The Licking County launch and the current status/needs for Recycling

Did you know that our St. Luke’s community played a pivotal role in getting county-wide recycling started and operational? It all started in our front yard – we should be proud of the part we played!

• In the 1970s, St. Luke’s front yard was used as the first community-wide recycling collection location for newspaper; collections sent thousands of tons of newpaper to reprocessing.

• As the effort caught energy, St. Luke’s and community volunteers secured and staffed a recycling center location for broader collection of materials; site was located in the IGA parking lot (behind the current gas station).

• Our state and county caught on in roughly 1988 and joined the movement. Today we have curbside mixed collection (a dream of the early St. Luke’s volunteers) and county-wide drop-off collection locations. 

• In 1990 St. Luke’s received a Governor’s Award for our recycling efforts. When interviewed for Earth Day in 1991, they attributed success in collection increases to education programs targeted at community youth. 

Want to learn more? Please join the coffee hour on April 23rd at 11:00 for a discussion on Recycling! Guest speakers will include our own Marilyn Boldon, and our guest, Andrea Krava, Licking County Recycling Executive Director and Educator. At this discussion we will recount the history, honor the pioneering recycling community, and move to discussion of current county programs as well as needs for new recycling initiatives!