Employee-Led Recycling Challenge Diverts Thousands of Pounds of Household Goods from Going to Waste
"Having a sustainable lifestyle means living with the future in mind," said Peggy Ratcliffe, founder and executive director of the Centers for Hard to Recycle Materials, facilities owned by the nonprofit Live Thrive.
Employees from across Southern Company Gas demonstrated that ethos by participating in Live Thrive’s 2024 CHaRM Corporate 20-Day Challenge, encouraging Atlanta companies to see how much their employees can recycle from home. Driving Southern Company Gas’s participation was EverGreen-GA, the Georgia division of the company’s environmentally focused employee volunteer group.
"This is the first time Southern Company Gas has participated in the challenge. We got involved because one of our leaders, Bill Barnes, is very passionate about CHaRM," said Kelly Daire, co-chair of EverGreen-GA. “Bill believes having the right resources can be the beginning of changed behavior.”
CHaRM’s idea is simple. Most people have a recycling bin at home where they can put aluminum, cardboard, metal, paper and plastics, but the landfill might seem like the only option for harder-to-recycle-items like Styrofoam, glass, large appliances, tires and mattresses. During the Corporate Challenge, it was easy for Southern Company Gas employees to recycle these items instead – all they had to do is drop them off in a “drive through” at CHaRM, and Southern Company Gas covered the costs.
The result was a community win for all.
In total, participating companies collected, reused and/or recycled about 90,000 pounds of materials. Southern Company Gas employees contributed over 1,500 pounds during the challenge.
One employee, Corey Jackson, delivered 635 pounds alone. "I’m glad to do it! My hobby is working with computers and electronics. You can’t just put that in the trash, so when it piles up, it gives me an opportunity to clean up the garage," said Jackson, who was grateful for the company enabling him to live more sustainably.
“It’s a great opportunity for our employees to have a spring cleaning and get to know this asset in our community,” added Barnes.
For making the largest individual contribution from Southern Company Gas, Evergreen gifted Jackson a 2024 VIP membership to CHaRM, which includes perks like guaranteed Saturday appointments and free recycling drop offs all year long.
This is not the first time that members of EverGreen have helped their colleagues live green. Passionate about the importance of pollinators on local ecosystems, they have planted pollinator gardens across the Southern Company Gas footprint and, most recently, brought in experts to teach them simple techniques for growing these flower gardens at home.
“Our goal is to preserve and protect the environment for the benefit of generations to come,” said Daire. “Partnering with organizations like CHaRM helps us fulfill this mission.”