Hours at the Center for Hard-to-Recycle Materials will change starting Jan. 2. The CHaRM, located off College Avenue north of downtown, will be open from 7 a.m.–1 p.m. Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and 12–6 p.m. on Wednesdays.
The changes were made to avoid being open in darkness during the winter and during the hottest hours in the summer; to give staff two days off in a row (Sundays and Mondays); to make the hours more consistent; and to ensure that the center is open outside of traditional working hours, Athens-Clarke County Waste Reduction Administrator Joe Dunlop said.
The ACC Solid Waste Department is also conducting a composting pilot program in Boulevard and Normaltown in partnership with the UGA New Materials Institute. Residents of those neighborhoods—bordered roughly by the Loop to the north, Barber and Pulaski streets to the east, Broad Street to the south and Hawthorne Avenue to the west—can sign up at accgov.com/composttrial for curbside compost pickup starting in February. The service will run until May, and there is no charge.
For those outside the pilot zone, ACC has six dropoff locations for food scraps and compostable paper products at the CHaRM (1005 College Ave.), UGA Health Sciences Campus (1001 Bowstrom Road), the Solid Waste office (725 Hancock Industrial Way), the ACC Landfill (5700 Lexington Road), the ACC Extension Office (275 Cleveland Road) and the UGArden (2500 S. Milledge Ave.). Compostable items must be loose or in a paper bag. ACC sells compost for gardens at the landfill for $20 a cubic yard.
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