Recycling Drastically Increased In Westlake In 2016

WESTLAKE, OH — The city of Westlake increased its recycling rate by nearly 10 percent between 2015 and 2016, according to a new report from the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District. The city had a recycling rate of 35.81 percent in 2015 and increased its recycling rate to 43.44 percent in 2016. The year-over-year increase is one of the five largest jumps in recycling rate in any community in Westlake.

The recycling rate is the percentage of residential waste diverted from landfills through community reuse, recycling and composting programs. The recycling rate is calculated by dividing the tons recycled by totals tons of waste generated.

In Westlake, there were 12,089.55 tons of landfill waste (aka waste that could not be recycled) generated in 2016. The city also had 2,141.45 tons of recycled waste (think cans, boxes, etc.) and 7,143.67 tons of recycled organics.

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Compare those recycling numbers to 2015, when the city had 2,102.40 tons of recycled waste, but only 4,922.85 tons of organic waste. The city produced 12,593.17 tons of landfill waste that year.

With a 2016 recycling rate of 76.59 percent, Cleveland Heights leads all of Cuyahoga County in recycling and reuse of waste. With Cleveland Heights leading the way, Cuyahoga County recycled 265,210 tons of residential waste last year, according to the report. That's 36.13 percent of all residential waste in the county, a 0.71 percent increase from 2015.

Over a 15 year period, a lot of progress has been made with recycling and making Cuyahoga County greener. In 2001, the recycling rate was less than half of 2016's 36.13 percent.

“The numbers are encouraging. The numbers prove that Cuyahoga County is moving in the right direction for recycling, composting and waste reduction,” says Jessica Fenos, planner for the Solid Waste District, in a statement.

Of the 59 communities in Cuyahoga County, 44 improved their recycling rate from 2015. Plus, 46 communities beat Ohio's recycling goal of 25 percent, with 15 communities achieving a recycling rate of 50 percent or more, including organics.

One of the notable regressions in the county was Cleveland, which saw its already paltry recycling rate fall even lower in 2016. The city's recycling rate fell to 13.63 percent from 15 percent in 2015. The county's largest city also generates 180,470.86 tons of landfill waste each year.

The 2016 report is available for viewing here.

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