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CHaRM - an Educational Site Visit

Posted on Sunday, May 29, 2022

On March 29th, about 20 ARCS members went to the Center for Hard to Recycle Materials (CHaRM) for an extremely interesting and informative site visit. Peggy Whitlow Ratcliffe, the founder and executive director, gave us an overview of CHaRM’s founding, history and its impact on the community and the environment. Her inspiration for founding this amazing non profit occurred when settling her parent’s estates and cleaning up their farm. After exhaustive research, Peggy discovered there was no place to readily and safely dispose of pesticides, chemicals and other items that had accumulated on the farm over the years. Neither the county where the farm was located, nor the city of Atlanta would accept any of these items. In recognition of the tremendous need for a means to handle the disposal of both unwanted and hazardous items, the Center for Hard to Recycle Materials was founded.

CHaRM, located at 1110 Hill Street in SE Atlanta, not far from the old Atlanta Braves Stadium was founded in 2015 as a part of Live Thrive Atlanta, an Atlanta-based nonprofit organization working since 2010 to create a community that cares about a healthy and sustainable environment. Peggy explained which items are handled by curbside recycling programs in the Metro area and explained that CHaRM is equipped to handle many things that curbside is not. Some of the many items accepted at CHaRM are appliances, bikes, cardboard, chemicals, compost, cooking oil, clothing and other donations, electronics, glass, mattresses, metals, musical instruments, paint, paper, books, styrofoam and tires. It is apparent that CHaRM is much more than simply a recycling center. After hearing Peggy’s presentation and having a lively Q&A, we toured the 14+ stations to see first-hand what CHaRM does with donations which would typically end up in a landfill. Through educating the public and the hard work of their employees and volunteers, they keep hazardous materials out of our air, water and soil. An astounding statistic is that ninety-six percent of all items brought to CHaRM will be recycled, re-purposed or re-engineered.

CHaRm is open by appointment from 9 am-2 pm on Tuesday and Thursday and from 8 am to 2 pm on Saturday. If you weren’t able to join us and would like to learn more about CHaRM, the items they accept and what they do with them, check out the links below:

https://youtu.be/sEwue_LpHWI

https://livethrive.org/charm/items-we-accept/

https://livethrive.org/charm/what-happens-to-your-waste/         

Our site visit to CHaRM was our first in person Educational Event in 2 years and was greatly enjoyed by all who attended. In addition, everyone realized that CHaRM is easily accessible and is a wonderful resource in Atlanta. If anyone has suggestions for a future Educational Event, please contact Mary Watson at marywatson3181@gmail.com or mwatson@atlanta.arcsfoundation.org.

 

Peggy Whitlow Ratcliffe