WastED - A Waste and Recycling Podcast by SWACO
WasteED is a waste and recycling education podcast from SWACO. Hosted monthly by Joe Lombardi and Hanna Greer-Brown, our guests offer insights into regional efforts helping to push sustainability forward as well as sharing their perspective on the next big GREEN thing for central Ohio. Between a few laughs plus genuine and substantive conversation, each episode features takeaways about proper disposal that will have listeners recycling right in no time. Find us on Spotify, Apple Music or wherever you listen!
WastED - A Waste and Recycling Podcast by SWACO
How A City Built Momentum For Recycling, Composting, And Reuse
What if a city made recycling the easiest option everywhere you go—at school, at the park, at festivals, and even at your desk? We sat down with Reynoldsburg Mayor Joe Begeny to trace a practical roadmap to less waste and more reuse, powered by clear rules, smart SWACO grants, and community pride. The story begins in classrooms, where the Slate Ridge Elementary green team turned sorting into second nature. It continues at public events, where portable recycling stations draw crowds who want the right bin within reach.
We dig into how 30 park containers cut litter and protected waterways, and how City Hall flipped behavior by pairing big blue recycling bins with tiny waste baskets. Six years after rolling out 65‑gallon curbside recycling carts, many homes now set out fuller recycling bins than trash bins —proof that simple, consistent guidance works.
Beyond the basics, Reynoldsburg keeps adding convenient ways to divert materials. Year‑round e‑waste collection takes the guesswork out of disposing of TVs, computers, and phones. A standout program transforms single‑use plastic film—grocery bags and shrink wrap—into sturdy park benches!
Seasonal efforts include leaf pickup which begins in October, a pumpkin drop after Halloween, a creative costume swap, and holiday string lights recycling to handle those strands that never seem to survive another season.
Public safety and stewardship meet at the prescription drug take‑back, coordinated with the Reynoldsburg Police Department near Earth Day, alongside paper shredding, bike donations, and respectful flag retirement. We wrap it all up with the mayor’s historian lens (he's a former teacher) on World War II and the sweeping changes of the 1960s, reminding us that culture shifts fast when people pull in the same direction.
If you care about building a cleaner, smarter city with tools that actually get used, this conversation is your playbook. Subscribe, share with a neighbor, and leave a review with the one idea you want your city or town to try next.
Welcome to Waste Ed. A waste and recycling podcast by Swaco. Welcome to our October episode of Waste Ed. With just about every episode, you, our listeners, get to hear from our partners who contribute to the sustainable circular economy. Whether it's a company, nonprofit, or township, it takes a team to keep Central Ohio green.
SPEAKER_02:And today we are joined by one of our community elected officials and certainly a well-known teammate of ours. And his city hosts the annual Tomato Festival. That's right, we welcome Reynoldsburg Mayor Joe Begney to the show. Mayor, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. Happy to be here. Mayor, your bio says you brought jobs, more amenities, modern infrastructure, and enhancement to your terrific park system in Reynoldsburg. Sustainability can be threaded in all of those goals. So let's start broadly with your thoughts on a more sustainable city and region.
SPEAKER_01:Well, there's a lot of different directions you can go with this. So let's start with the most important one, which is really for the betterment of our entire environmental status in the Central Ohio region. We're looking at ways to reduce waste. We're looking at ways to reuse and repurpose other materials. And anytime that you can include that in what your normal day-to-day operations are, that is a good thing. And also from an economic point of view, you're looking at saving funds for the taxpayers so we can redirect them into other areas. We're also looking at ways for investment. So industry that might come to Reynoldsburg that is interested in the fact of doing something with recycling or environmental work, we're always looking for that as well. So there's a lot of uh there's a lot of targets out there to hit with sustainability goals.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's great. And I know, Mayor, you've always been a very big supporter for Swaco, and we've always been a big supporter of yours of trying to help us figure out a way to help Reynoldsburg. So we appreciate that.
SPEAKER_00:So on that theme, let's dive into several of our collaborations. I know we recently had an opportunity to work with Slate Ridge Elementary to help them implement new recycling containers through our School Recycling Champions program. A teacher and green team will soon be implementing our best educational practices. Mayor, you're a former teacher. So how does this make you smile or how does this make you feel?
SPEAKER_01:Well, I mean, first of all, if like with everything when it comes to education, uh, if you can start with a good foundation, then a lot of the issues that we all see later on might not be there. So if you can work on something from anything as simple as, you know, sustainable materials and recycling in a in a school building where things are not just getting thrown into the trash, but we can actually recycle and reuse it. Perhaps as those kids get a little bit older, we may see less litter on the roads and less litter in our parks. And so start setting those establishments there. My favorite thing is when I talk to the students that say it, um, you know, we always get that one student says, Well, I told my mom that they can't throw things out anymore because I'm not allowed to at school. And it's one of those, that's that's exactly what it's designed to do. Get them started into this understanding at an early age with something as simple as cleaning up after themselves and recycling some of these materials so that way they can make their own difference in their own lives.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and and as Hannah can attest, you know, I believe that getting into our schools and getting into our young children's heads early and often is the best thing we can do for the next generation coming up, especially when it comes to sustainability. And I know we've attended three of Reynoldsburg's sponsored events in 2024. I think it was the Nature Adventure Day in June, the Farmers Market in July, and a national night out in July. So it's you guys are doing a bang up job out in Reynoldsburg, and we appreciate that.
SPEAKER_00:So many great events taking place. And uh, I know we recently had a chance to work with the city to bring Serebin outdoor portable recycling containers to public events in the city. How have those efforts been received by residents?
SPEAKER_01:Very well. Everybody likes the idea of it. Um, you know, some people are looking for the recycle, you know, what they can put their recycle materials in as opposed to just throwing them in the trash. So they're actually going out of their way to find where those things are. And the more options that we have and the more we can space them out through any of our events, whether they're a smaller event like a farmer's market or national night out, which gets bigger and bigger every year. Those are the things that are there. And we know that what we're doing is working because again, they're not just throwing everything in the trash. They're actually specifically looking for some of our recyclable areas.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and I know you have a great park system. When many years ago, I used to play a lot of golf out at Black Lick, and I think it was the very first time I ever saw a deer cross a fairway. And the good thing is I didn't hit it to the fairway. So I I went to chase it out of the trees that he came out of. But um, in 2022, you received a community waste reduction grant to purchase 30 recycling containers for your parks. Talk about how these containers help keep parks clean and welcoming to your residents and to visitors.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I mean, the one thing that Reynoldsburg has a really good reputation with, as you mentioned, is our park system. Uh, we have a lot of different parks for a relatively small community, and we're talking acreage of parks. And so we want to make sure that they keep them as clean as possible. So again, they don't get in any of our waterway systems or anything like that. So when you're able to put these uh recyclable containers throughout our entire park system, it is much easier for people to, when they're there, they can bring their lunch. They can enjoy the whether it's just a picnic environment or if they're there for soccer games or something like that. But instead of packing up their trash or leaving their trash, they have those receptacles there. And I think a lot of times that's one of the biggest obstacles. If there's nothing there to throw anything away in, then it just winds up on the ground. But now that they know there's something there and probably a little bit of peer pressure from some other people in the area, um, it this just makes it easier for them to go ahead and do the responsible thing.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and I know when I'm out of a park, it's kind of one of the things I look for, whether it's in Columbus or outside of Columbus, I'm always like, where are the recycling bins? And so then my children always remind me, why doesn't Swaco put them there? I'm like, I'm not my district. So we we we can't worry about that. So um, but through that same grant, indoor recycling containers are now in place for employee workstations, uh, common areas in City Hall and the Senior Center. Have all the containers been working out well for you?
SPEAKER_01:Yes. Once you got past the initial transition stage, um, the biggest thing that people were concerned about is okay, so we have your normal trash bin size for recyclable materials, um, and then you have an exceptionally smaller version for what would actually just be waste. Um, and there was a lot of concern. Well, like, well, this isn't going to hold everything I throw away. But as the time has gone on, everybody realizes, oh, wait a second, all of this stuff that I can put into the recycling bin doesn't need to go into the waste. The waste baskets are significantly smaller. And so, again, from um an environmental standpoint, that's a plus all the way around. More things growing to the recycling as opposed to into the trash. And then from an economic factor, um, it the tonnage that we get that goes into recycling is one thing, but you know, it's less waste in our trash. And that's that's again the goal of this is a kind of change the mindset. Now, um, outside of every now and then a little joke about the size of the trash container, everybody kind of accepts it and it is what it is, and they move on with it. It's no longer, it's no longer an obstacle.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's great. That's great. And if and if I recall from some stats uh from this grant, nearly 18,000 pounds of recycled material was collected. Pretty accurate. Wow. That's pretty darn good.
SPEAKER_00:Sounds like the city's finding a lot of success with recycling in your public spaces, at your parks, certainly at your municipal buildings. Let's talk about recycling at homes in the city as well. So a couple of years ago, actually about six years ago, Swaco helped the city purchase uh curbside recycling carts, so 65-gallon blue recycling carts. Um, how is residential recycling going? And six years into these efforts now, um, what sort of reflections or observations do you have about the program?
SPEAKER_01:Again, like I think a lot of things, anything that is new is sometimes difficult for people to embrace. But I think since that it has been there now six years looking back, I would say that a majority of people will probably have their recycling bins more full than their actual trash bins. Now, to be fair, we have a larger trash bin than what the recycle bin is. Um, but I think people realize it. And when they start looking at these options and realizing, oh my goodness, how much I'm putting in a recycle bin. Like I can tell you right now, our trash day that is gets picked up is on Friday or Thursday for my family. Um, probably by Saturday, we're already about halfway through on the recycle bin and we have to try and press and compress it down a little bit just because, but we've also made an effort to it. And I think a lot of Reynoldsburg residents have, um, because we don't get any, you know, you don't get any complaints anymore. You don't get any, you know, any angry things about it. I think the next step for us is to try and figure out how to make sure we can kind of contain what's in the recycle bin. So on those exceptionally windy days, uh, nothing gets away from us uh as we're going through the trash delivery.
SPEAKER_02:I know you take full advantage of our grant program and we appreciate that uh Reynoldsburg looking to us to help them because you know, budgets aren't are tight and in uh in suburban communities, uh there's other things that you need to uh adhere to. So we do appreciate you taking advantage. And if any of your colleagues out there in their suburban communities are listening, uh we do have a great grant program that Reynoldsburg certainly has done a bang up job in their town uh of utilizing, such as our CART grant, which provided resources for you to implement a community-level recycle right education campaign. Do you feel homes are recycling better today as a result of what you've done there?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, I think anytime you get the information out there, whether again you mentioned it going into the schools and letting them know that way, letting the families know, and anything as simple as some of the mailers that have gone out about what does and does not go in a recycle bin, um, all of those things help because there are a lot of times where everybody go, oh, I didn't know that could. And then now all of a sudden you're just again taking one away from trash and putting into recycling. If you don't, you don't know what you don't know, and these opportunities and um educational resources out there help everybody kind of figure out what the best practices are.
SPEAKER_00:Well, mayor, we really appreciate our opportunities to partner with local communities to introduce recycle right education campaigns. Uh, remind our listeners from Reynoldsburg what's accepted in their home's recycling cart.
SPEAKER_01:So while there's a lot of things you can go in, let's keep it very simple. Let's just go with plastic bottles, tubes, jugs, the caps on them, and of course glass bottles and jars, uh, carton containers, paper, and of course cardboard and metal cans. Those are the big, those are the big ticket items.
SPEAKER_02:And you and your team have also built out a yearly calendar full of events to promote sustainability by reducing, recycling, and reusing precious resources. Uh let's talk just briefly about some of those. Uh the e-waste recycling opportunity available year-round, free to use. Tell us a little bit about that.
SPEAKER_01:Well, uh, technology changes um about every 20 minutes. Um, your cell phones, the moment you get them, are probably already obsolete. You know, you can make the same jokes about televisions and computers and things like that. And a lot of times people don't know, you know, you can try and set them out on the curb. Maybe they can, somebody will pick them up. But the reality is with some of the technology and some of the components in it, it the best thing to do is to find a way to recycle it. Um, and instead of just doing it at a one-time of year event where you've got like a community cleanup day, which we do, now all of a sudden, if you can bring those items and bring them to City Hall to dispose of them safely, correctly, to make sure that nothing hazardous gets out, and then also to get them off your hands, because again, we all know that sometimes things get kind of cluttery in the in there and it's not always time for spring cleaning. This is just another option for parents uh and community members to get that stuff out to make sure that they're doing it the right way again to recycle and reuse. That's great.
SPEAKER_00:Well, in preparation for this conversation today, I had a chance to talk with some of your team members and they shared something really cool with me. They said the city is turning plastic bags into park benches or benches.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. Um, so I for as a former teacher, I'm always kind of cognizant of trying to make an educational opportunity uh for as many people as possible. And so we've had a number of interns that have come in, both from high school and from college. And a couple of years ago, we uh there was the great single-use plastic bag debate and whether or not the city was going to do anything from a legislative standpoint to restrict the use of those. Um, as they kind of went through my intern and then an intern from the city attorney's office, they actually went through and did a presentation at council talking about the pros and cons of those things. And what we ultimately found is that maybe we could find other alternatives than just doing something through legislation, something more proactive. So we scoured all the resources throughout the internet and we found an opportunity where we can take single-use plastics, which could be anything from your Kroger bags all the way to the plastic that goes around your water bottle containers and things of that nature, uh, collecting that. And over the course of an amount of time, you get a certain amount of poundage, and then they will actually recycle that and put it into a plastic bench that now we can use. Um, we are a little bit too successful with that program. Original, originally it was only 600 pounds. Um, but when the community responded uh as quickly as they did, they've upped our uh quota to only one bench a year, and we have to get a thousand pounds. Um, and we're able to hit that all, but we don't just wait it for the plastic bench. We will recycle the entire time and we will do it all the way. Uh, because again, it's one of those things where if they can bring it to City Hall or our senior center or a police department, they put it in there, we weigh it, and you know, we're getting hundreds and hundreds of pounds uh on a monthly basis to it. And sometimes we get a park bench out of it, other times we just know that we're getting those single plastic uses out of the major landfill areas. And again, that's just a huge win for everybody.
SPEAKER_02:That's a great story, especially the part where, oh whoa, slow down. I like that. It's like that means good things are happening. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00:Well, it sounds like the city also has a couple of new um opportunities to divert material from the landfill. Uh, something that your team shared with me that leaf removal is beginning.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so we're hoping to start the leaf program in early to mid-October. Uh, once we have a couple of pieces of equipment in, we've divided the city into three zones uh to make sure that everybody's covered. Uh, we'll notify them either through social media or we're probably going to be putting some message boards out there for everybody who's not on social media to hey, go ahead and put your leaves to the curb area so we can go ahead and pick those up. Uh, those leaves will then be collected and taken to Ohio mulch where they'll be ground up for compost. So that way we can take care of that, you know, after effect as well. Uh, we're also making sure that people know this is a voluntary program. So if they would like to keep their leaves in their own yard for any purpose whatsoever, they're more than welcome to do so.
SPEAKER_00:What a convenient way to get rid of those materials if you want to. Uh, you mentioned composting. I'm curious. Has the city thought about pumpkin and gourd composting?
SPEAKER_01:We, this is gonna be the first year that we're going to do the pumpkin composting, yes. Um our our communication and events uh director has been a very big advocate of doing this, uh, mostly because she knows that I am a big fan of Halloween and uh she knows that there are a lot of pumpkins around. And so if we're gonna have those anyway, let's go ahead and give this an opportunity for our community members that uh once the celebration of All Hollows Eve is over, that we can go ahead and take care of those pumpkins.
SPEAKER_02:Mayor, there's this third annual costume swap. A little birdie told us an interesting story. One year you received a donated prom dress, which was reused and turned into a Halloween-esque tomato festival queen. Tell us a little more about that.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. Uh so like I said, I'm a big fan of Halloween. And so what we're trying to do is um kind of expand on what a what our community association helps put on, which is uh, you know, our Halloween festival, which is actually going to be uh the weekend of the 17th and 18th. And what we have done is we've uh kind of made Reynoldsburg a scarecrow city. And so there are certain scarecrows all the way throughout, and this prom dress uh was decorated in all the wonderful ways you can imagine a prom dress from Carrie being decorated in. Um, nothing too scary, but just enough to kind of get that little ooh kind of mood into it. So they had that was one of our uh big options last year.
SPEAKER_02:That's pretty creative. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. And in December, you'll host String Lights Recycling Opportunities. What are some of the details about that?
SPEAKER_01:Well, everybody likes to decorate with holiday lights. And while everybody would hope that the lights last more than one season, sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. So when you're getting out those lights uh in the nice weather, hopefully in uh, you know, after Thanksgiving and early December, if you have lights that do not work anymore uh and you need to go ahead and do it, again, let's not just throw them in the trash. Let's go ahead and bring them to a recycling thing to have them taken care of professionally and reused as best as they possibly can and to make sure residents know about that. Um and it it's helpful because again, those lights don't always last uh, you know, more than one or two years, and everybody wants to go ahead and put them back in. So let's go ahead and make sure we take care of that.
SPEAKER_00:And if somebody wanted to find out where to bring those, would they just go to your website?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, typically it's on the website. We also do uh we're very active on social media, uh, Facebook as well as you know, Instagram and things like that. Anything that we can to get the information out to our community members.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, Mayor, let's spring forward to 2026. The city and the police department coordinate a prescription drug take back event.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you know, it's um in this day and age with uh medication is prevalent out there. One of the big things that we want to do is make sure that uh when people are done with their medication, uh, that they have a safe place to get rid of it. You certainly don't want to throw it in the trash and certainly don't want to get it into our water system. So we offer the opportunity for residents to come in and safely dispose of all of those materials. Police officers are right there on scene, so we'll have something where the pills can go in. Um, and then we have something else for the plastic containers all the way across to make sure that everything is taken care of the right way. Uh it's also good to make sure you don't want to leave any of that stuff hanging around because you never know what might get who might get into it. And unless you want to do it for safety reasons for a number of things. Yep.
SPEAKER_00:I know I've had a chance to visit that event in the spring out in the city of Reynoldsburg, and you guys always do a really nice job with it. It also seems to be kind of coupled with other activities. I've seen people donating bikes to the Boy Scouts and other things. So again, people can probably go to your website or follow you on social media in order to find out what all they can bring to that event.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and every year it's uh we try and keep it around Earth Day as best as we can. We've been really lucky with the weather with it, but you're looking at paper shredding all the way again to you know the respectful disposal of flags, uh bigger electronic uh disposal, as well as working with Habitat for Humanity and other agencies as well.
SPEAKER_02:As we start to wrap it up, Mayor, um let's come back to your time in the classroom. Uh, because once a teacher, always a teacher. Very much so. And I know you and I have had conversations before. I I I'm happy to be on your podcast as well, or your Facebook Live, I think is is what it is. And uh we got to talking a little bit of history. Now, I won't I won't go into history battle with you because I will lose that. But you know, for me, I was always a big fan of the era of the 60s, um, you know, 1960 to about 72. That you know, I thought it was just an interesting time period in history, and so I have to ask you, and and I'll ask Hannah, uh, what is your favorite historical era, Hannah?
SPEAKER_00:Well, Joe, it's kind of hard to choose, but I guess I dream of uh being part of the California gold rush. I'd love to be in a stream panin for gold and hit it rich.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, well, well, hopefully you can get out there someday. And and so for a real historian, Mayor, what is your favorite historical era?
SPEAKER_01:So I would say in general, really the 1920s through the 1960s. Um, but if I had to focus in, um, what really got my love of history is actually learning a lot about World War II. Uh, I remember at one point in time my parents were on a corporate trip and they were lucky enough to go to Hawaii of all places where I had to stay home. Um, but they had brought back a book on Pearl Harbor. And this was probably when I was in the third grade, and I just started reading it. And the next thing I know, I started reading everything else about the era, and that's kind of continued on to even meeting some veterans, meeting some members of uh that some people that have survived the Holocaust, meeting members of if you saw the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, I actually met a couple of members of there and talk about, you know, hand sweating and you know, hero awe of going into it. So that's probably my favorite era all the way across, but I do enjoy the 60s because of how different you wake up one day and it's just January 1st, 1960, and then you wake up, you know, January 1st, 1970, and the world is nowhere near the same. It is such a a decade where so much change happened in such a small period of time that it stands out amongst all other all other decades really in American history.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, my father-in-law was a former World War II veteran, and just to sit down with him sometimes to hear some of the stories, it it's just fascinating to think they these were kids. Yes. You know, they were young 18, 19, 20-year-old kids uh trying to save the world. Save the world, right? Exactly. Exactly.
SPEAKER_00:Well, thank you, Mayor, for your partnership with Swaco, but for your commitment to public service and to building a more sustainable city and region for all of us. And to our listeners, thank you as well. If you'd like to know more about what we do, visit our website anytime at Swaco.org. We also want to hear from you. If you have ideas for future podcast episodes, connect with us on any of our social channels, or you can always drop us an email. Until the next time, this is WasteEt, a waste and recycling podcast by Swaco.