INDIANAPOLIS – If you live downtown, you may have noticed: The one space where you can drop off recycling in the area has been shut down, and now we're learning, it's gone for good.
It’s a change we’ve noticed – especially because of the community outrage.
A lot of people who live near the Marsh at New York and New Jersey streets are now upset and confused. They’re leaving their recyclables out in the open, as they don’t really know where else to take them.
Local resident Bob Hebbs first noticed the problem Saturday, when he rolled up to recycle as he does every week.
“I drove in and found the recycling container was gone, and I thought, ‘This isn’t good,’” Hebbs said. “I’ve been recycling here at this site for the past 20-plus years, and it came as a shock to me.”
While there are 23 city recycling drop-off sites across Indianapolis, this site was the only one available downtown.
“Where else are we going to recycle downtown?” Hebbs asked.
It’s a question we dug into, learning the big green bin was removed at the request of the new property owners, who wanted it gone quickly.
Indianapolis’ Office of Sustainability was unable why the company that put it there wanted it gone. We reached out to the property owners – Citimark – there, and they didn’t return our calls.
Either way, the sudden request has left downtown Indy without a recycling site as of last Friday morning.
The City says with all the calls, emails and tweets, it has gotten the message loud and clear.
“People are – as we would expect – not happy about it,” Office of Sustainability spokeswoman Aliya Wishner said. “But I think that’s a really good thing. It shows our citizens care about recycling and want to properly dispose of their materials.”
By Tuesday afternoon, shortly after RTV6 first looked into this, the city came up with a temporary solution.
A new recycling site will open tomorrow morning just blocks from the old one.
It will be in the parking lot north of the old city hall in the 200 block of North Alabama. You can find it on the map here.
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