WACO, TX — An advisory group in Waco is pushing for more sustainability within the city to keep Waco green.
The Sustainable Resources Practices Advisory Board (SRPAB) wants to focus on the amount of glass waste from bars and restaurants and guide them to free green resources.
"It's just as hard to take the trash out as it is to fill a bin with recyclable glass, so it's not too big of an extra step to do the right thing," says Davis Misloski a board member with SRPAB.
The board is working on analyzing Waco's strengths and weaknesses in waste, energy, air and water quality.
"I think the best way to be good neighbors to each other is to make sure we're all using the best condition possible and that includes using our resources wisely," says Misloski.
The board is encouraging businesses to connect with local resources like "Keep Waco Beautiful"
Keep Waco Beautiful provides free recycling bins to dump out empty bottles.
"I would say there's only positives, there's a benefit to you there's a benefit to me there's a benefit to the world around us," says Adam Gilliland an employee with Wine Shoppe.
Places like Wine Shoppe host regular wine tastings and thanks to Keep Waco Beautiful, they say thousands of their glass bottles get recycled.
Their efforts won Wine Shoppe Keep Waco Beautiful's title of Green Business of the Month.
"Most of the wine that's in the shop is from producers who are really focused on environmentally conscious and sustainable methods and so we kind of tried to make that part of our initiative as well in selling those producers wines," says Gilliland.
Wine Shoppe also encourages customers to bring back their empty bottles for them to the store.
Keep Waco Beautiful then comes by and takes the bins to Cobbs's Recycling Center.
"Just place it where it goes and someone comes to take it and have it recycled and we can use it again," says Ethel White, a service provider with Cobbs Recycling Center.
The program started in 2019 and in a few months collected over 17,000 lbs of glass along just one block of bars on Austin Avenue.
Last month Cobb's Recycling Center expanded its hours to keep up with city initiatives to be more green.
New service hours are Monday through Saturday, 8 am To 5 pm.
They accept anything from glass, metal paper and more.
Solid waste officials say as Waco continues to grow, in order to be more sustainable it will be a team effort.
"We are in the process of building a new landfill and if we can jump on it now, and really get the word and the message out to divert as much as we can we won't have to hopefully go through this process again," says Ashely Millerd, the outreach coordinator, with the City of Waco Solid Waste Department.
Cobbs Recycling Center is located at 2021 N. 44th street in Waco.
They also encourage residents to donate larger furniture or items to charitable organizations, instead of taking it to landfills.
