Chattanooga renews recycling program repurposing waste into useful items - WTVC

Chattanooga renews recycling program repurposing waste into useful items

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — The City of Chattanooga is renewing a program that would help recycle several tons of waste.

It converts things such as food storage bags and takeout containers, and turns them into benches and lumber.

The city hopes this will help reduce pollution in landfills.

Last year Chattanooga collected more than 40 tons of hard to recycle plastics that could have otherwise been thrown into landfills.

But where does this plastic go? Thursday we dig deeper.
"There's nothing sort of notable and specific that I can point to yet,” says Eric Holl, Senior Advisor to the Mayor of Chattanooga.

The Hefty ReNew program started in Chattanooga back in 2022, but has nothing to show for it just yet.
“It's a longer process to see some of the more specific things like park benches, but a lot of this is more materials oriented." Holl says.

Park benches are important because in other areas where the program has been in place longer, some recycled material has been used to create them.
"We are still pretty early on in this process," Holl says.

But after much success collecting trash last year, and still to this day, the city says there was no doubt to continue the program.
"It was kind of a no brainer for both the City of Chattanooga and for Hefty to continue this partnership and make it a longer term thing," Holl says.

You can go here to see the items the program is collecting. It includes items like foam egg cartons, candy wrappers, bubble wrap, foam peanuts, disposable cleaning rags, plastic cups, and more.

You can bring the items to these 5 participating recycling centers containing bins marked specifically for orange Hefty Renew bags:
"The main priority is diverting the stuff from the landfill, everything else is secondary benefit of that."

If you're interested in participating in the program, learn more here.