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Women helped found local recycling society
In a time when recycling has become the norm and debates on banning plastic bags happen in government, Julie Koehn can remember a time when recycling wasn't a mainstream idea.
Koehn, 63, is a founding member of the board of directors for the Ridge Meadows Recycling Society. She said the most memorable thing for her experience as part of the society has been seeing the attitudes change.
"Just being able to see the snowball effect of recycling in my lifetime," she said.
Koehn credits her husband, Dave, with getting her involved with the local branch of the Society for Pollution and Environmental Control (SPEC) in the early 70s, which eventually lead to their involvement in helping to spearhead recycling in the community.
The society was given a spot at the local landfill, and Koehn was on site educating people on recycling.
"I remember standing out there in the rain handing out pamphlets to people as they drove their car down to their garbage, that 'hey, we're starting this recycling depot, you won't have to throw it all away,'" she said.
Koehn helped land the society's first customer who would accept the society's product of used newspaper. Her son, who was about six months old, was along for the ride.
"Packed him to the Belkin Paper board...with a friend who was also involved with the group to see if they would accept newspaper as our product to market to them," she said.
When her son was old enough to go to school, Koehn, a former elementary school teacher, started a program of going around to different schools doing presentations on recycling.
"I had a little bag of garbage and I'd use the idea 'does this all have to go into the garbage?'" she said.
Koehn said she will stay on the board of the Ridge Meadows Recycling Society "as long as I'm fit and able and they want me."
She said the society's strength has been its ability to grow, from the original recycling of newspapers and cardboard to today when it's possible to recycle electronic waste and other products.
"We're always looking ahead as to what the next thing is," she said.
Koehn said it's also important to reduce and reuse.
"It's never been recycle first, it's always been reduce, reuse, and then recycle," she said.
