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City staff outline recycling pilots, resilience hubs and energy audit
Summary
City of Greenville staff introduced a new sustainability and resilience coordinator and described recycling pilots with TerraCycle, a resilience‑hub plan for Nicholtown and West Greenville, a 400+ meter energy audit and other sustainability initiatives.
Jeff, a staff member in the City of Greenville project management office, introduced Cassandra, the city’s new sustainability and resilience coordinator, and city staff briefed the Greenville City Council on recycling pilots, resilience hub planning and an ongoing energy‑use analysis across municipal facilities.
Cassandra joined the City of Greenville in March from the Georgia Department of Environmental Protection, Jeff said. Cassandra described public outreach work this summer, including three events — Party for the Planet at the zoo, a sustainability fellows event and a team leadership camp — and said staff will present additional community programming such as an event at the Nicholtown Community Center.
Cassandra described a pilot with TerraCycle's “zero‑waste” collection program. “Zero waste boxes is recycling on steroids. It's a company called TerraCycle, and they will recycle just about anything,” Cassandra said. Staff said they will test three types of TerraCycle boxes at city facilities: plastic packaging (for items such as sandwich wrappers), coffee capsules (for single‑serve pods) and candy/snack wrappers. The pilot will begin in a high‑traffic city break room and, if successful, expand to other city facilities.
City staff also reported installing recycling signage and bins inside City Hall and said they plan to deploy similar measures across other city facilities, including Hult Road and fire stations. Luis Cruz, the building manager for City Hall, helped place the signage, staff said.
On public‑facing recycling, staff said they have tested “sidekicks,” small recycling bins that clip to trash barrels at public events. The sidekicks have been used at the city’s farmer’s market and staff said results were positive so far; staff cautioned the sidekicks can be more easily contaminated when placed adjacent to trash cans.
City staff outlined plans to classify the Nicholtown Community Center and a site in West Greenville as resilience hubs — community centers that provide neighborhood support, resource distribution and backup power during adverse events. Staff said a resolution authorizing work tied to a “big idea” grant for backup power will come to council in a few weeks. Staff said the Nicholtown center will be the city’s first resilience hub based on their research.
The sustainability team, staff said, has 11 city employees signed up for an internal program to promote sustainability, and staff reported an energy‑use audit covering “about 400 plus” meters across the city to identify large users such as the Alton Road 24‑hour operations and the convention center. Staff said they have met twice with Duke Energy while they continue to analyze meter data; City Hall showed unexpectedly high usage that staff are investigating.
Council members asked about glass recycling and private contractors. Staff said the city had used single‑stream recycling that relies on a contractor, Pratt, which does not accept glass; staff said they will follow up on other collection options. Council members also asked about the Greenlink maintenance facility and whether it is drawing power for electric buses; staff said those chargers were not yet in heavy use.
Staff emphasized the items discussed were pilots or analyses and that formal council action would be requested where required, including the upcoming resolution on backup power for resilience hubs.
