Special to the Opelika Observer
Because of COVID-19 and its potential impact on employees, Opelika’s Recycling Centers on 8th Avenue and Jeter Avenue are temporarily closing. We will also temporarily discontinue our commercial cardboard route until further notice.
Our service providers are more at risk in these services because of more personal contact with the public and having to manually handle some of the recycling materials. We will continue to monitor the situation and will reopen the recycling sites and restart the commercial cardboard routes as soon as possible. If you can store your recycling during this time, please do so.
As long as the Columbus Recycling Center is open, we plan to continue our curbside recycling program. The Columbus Recycling Center utilizes approximately 35 inmates to help sort the recycling materials. If these inmates are not allowed to work, the recycling center would have to temporarily stop operations.
The Lee County Sheriff’s Department has stopped allowing trustees to work at the Lee County Recycling Center and that impacts our cardboard baling.
Please be patient as we work through this situation. We will get back to normal operations as soon as possible.
Additional Note: We have a small number of customers who require special services. Beginning this week, our employees will be wearing extra protective gear (i.e. face mask, gloves and white suits) during those pickups.
For more information, please contact Opelika Environmental Services at 334-705-5480.