The North Carolina General Assembly has passed legislation that will go into effect on January 1, 2008 mandating all restaurants and bars in the state to recycle their aluminum and glass beverage containers. In Wilmington, the city has provided these businesses with containers for pickup and schedule notices of when pickup will occur. Many business owners complain that while such steps need to be taken for the sake of the environment, the new requirement will cut into employees’ regular on-the-job duties.
I contacted several restaurant and bar owners to get their reaction to the change. Liz Masnik, owner of the Borough said her establishment began a recycling program as soon as it opened its doors, and will continue to operate business as usual. It should be noted that the state has not specified what the penalties will be for not complying with the new law. David Lockwood of Red Room said he was excited about the new law and looked forward to complying with them.
The manager of 518 West said that the city currently offers free recycling to its “business district”, which unfortunately ends 1 block east of Glenwood South. While I try to keep my opinion out of the articles I post here, I do hope that our new city council takes the opportunity to expand this service to Raleigh’s busiest entertainment district.
It is unclear if the city’s recycling program is being offered to the growing entertainment district on Fayetteville and Hargett Streets.
See our previous post about this issue.
Welcome to New Raleigh. We welcome your participation in the ongoing discussion. Before posting we ask that you read our Comment Policy and we invite you to register with our site. If you want to keep up with the news on our blog, subscribe to the RSS feed or get emailed every time we post.