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Executive Director and founder of Live Thrive Atlanta, Peggy Ratcliffe, is in the studio for today’s episode of Atlanta Real Estate Forum Radio. Joined by co-hosts Carol Morgan and Todd Schnick, the group discusses The Center for Hard to Recycle Materials (CHaRM) on today’s Around Atlanta segment of Radio.
Live Thrive Atlanta is an Atlanta-based nonprofit started in 2009 with a vision to create a community that cares about a healthy and sustainable environment. Over the past 10 years, Ratcliffe and Live Thrive Atlanta were able to create the organization’s premier program, CHaRM. Prior to opening CHaRM, Live Thrive Atlanta held annual household hazardous waste collections. This included collecting items like electronics, paint, household cleaning products and other things too harmful or bulky to put at the curb.
“We realized pretty quickly after having those events that it was a lot more convenient for people, as well as economically feasible to have a permanent drop off facility,” said Ratcliffe. “So, people could actually bring those things throughout the year at their convenience, such as after the holiday, instead of waiting for a once-a-year event.”
Ratcliffe understood that people preferred not to crowd garages, crawl spaces, attics and other storage areas in the home with these cumbersome objects. With an annual event, people would have to hold on to these items until the next drop off event. Because of CHaRM, these items no longer have to take up space or become burdens in the home.
Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the average American accumulates at least 25% more waste than during other non-holiday times of the year. To help combat this, CHaRM hosts an annual cleanup proceeding Christmas. This is a great way for families to get rid of any burnt-out Christmas lights, bulky boxes, broken decorations, ribbons, electronics, Christmas trees and other items leftover from the holidays. This service is meant to help households declutter after the holidays, while also finding ways to recycle or reuse items that are otherwise thrown away.
“Unfortunately, Georgia has over 159 landfills, which coincidentally is the same number of counties,” said Ratcliffe. “However, that is not per county. We actually have three in DeKalb Coutny. So we have more landfills than any other state east of the Mississippi and that is not a good thing. The more trash that we create that we throw away, we are just filling up those landfills and having to create more.”
CHaRM and the annual Christmas cleanup held by Live Thrive Atlanta are two solutions to help reuse and recycle waste instead of adding to the abundance of landfills in Georgia. By donating waste and trash to CHaRM and the Live Thrive Atlanta’s designated trash clean up programs, Georgia residents can help to drastically cut back on the waste entered into landfills around the holidays.
CHaRM takes any and all electronics at its collection facilities. A common fear amongst electronics owners is the information on these devices. People do not want to throw out electronics that could potentially have vital information on them. Live Thrive Atlanta and CHaRM have a rigorous process to ensure no information is left on these devices. As soon as the electronics are given to the partner facility to recycle, they are put through three different magnetic machines to completely wipe off any information or data. In addition, useful devices such as phones and laptops are donated to students and families in need. The need for these electronics has grown since the beginning of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic and the implementation of virtual learning.
To learn more about Live Thrive Atlanta and CHaRM, visit https://livethrive.org/charm. Also, be sure to listen to the full interview above.
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Georgia Residential Mortgage Licensee, License #22564. NMLS ID #6606. Subject to borrower and property qualifications. Not all applicants will qualify. New American Funding and Live Thrive Atlanta are not associated. Click here to view the terms and conditions of products mentioned during the show. Corporate office 14511 Myford Rd., Suite 100, Tustin, CA 92780. Phone: (800) 450-2010. (December/2020)
New American Funding is a family-owned mortgage lender with a servicing portfolio of over 123,000 loans for $30.4 billion, 198 branches, and about 3,100 employees. The company offers several niche loan products and has made Inc. 5000’s list of Fastest-Growing Companies in America six times. It has a state-of-the-art career training facility and develops innovative technology, including the GoGo LO mobile application. For more information, visit www.branch.newamericanfunding.com/Atlanta.
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