Recycling has been available in Clarksville for a while, with drop-off locations around the county. But it hasn’t always been convenient, requiring residents to sort every item and haul it every week or so in the trunk or back seat.
But curbside pickup from Recyclops? That’s so much easier.
Recyclops is a startup that’s focusing on helping solve the global waste crisis. “We are bridging the gaps to minimize waste, preventing waste from going into the landfill, nature and oceans,” said Paula Michelle Andrade, vice president of marketing at Recyclops.
They do this by working with communities to make zero waste a reality.
“People in local communities sign up to get curb-side recycling service, and from there we take waste that would otherwise go to the landfill to the local recycling facility to be reused or recycled,” Andrade said.
“Also, this brings gig jobs to the community.”
How it started
Recyclops was founded in 2014 when CEO Ryan Smith realized his off-campus apartment didn’t have any recycling options. He later found out that most apartments in the U.S. didn’t have recycling options either.
Recyclops started by providing recycling for apartments in Provo, Utah, then expanded to provide cardboard recycling for businesses. Recyclops eventually acquired a curbside recycling program in Mapleton, Utah, which is how their current services started.
They’ve since expanded into 19 states, including Tennessee. In 2021 alone, they recycled approximately 6.7 million pounds of materials including cardboard, aluminum, plastic and glass, keeping all of it out of community landfills.
How it works
In Clarksville, Recyclops does pickup either weekly or every two weeks. Customers are given Recyclops bags – colored blue and yellow. The only sorting needed is to keep glass separate in the yellow bag. Everything else goes in the blue bag.
And Recyclops accepts two big categories that the Montgomery County recycling center doesn’t: paper, and plastic tubs and lids.
Prices range from $12 per month to $29 per month, depending on frequency and whether you want to add glass recycling.
For more information, go to the Recyclops Clarksville website.