Humane Society gets free space for bottle recycling center at Briarwood Mall
The Humane Society of Huron Valley is partnering with the Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group to open a recycling center at the real estate firm's Briarwood Mall.
The collection location is set to open Wednesday in the former Arby’s storefront, located in the JCPenney wing of the mall on Ann Arbor's south side. Visitors can donate bottles and cans to the center during mall hours.
Eastern Michigan University graduate student Annette Richard pets a cat in December at the Humane Society of Huron Valley.
File photo | AnnArbor.com
All proceeds from the recycling center will go to the Humane Society of Huron Valley and the Simon Youth Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports education and scholarship programs for high school students. Nonrefundable bottles will be collected by Recycle Ann Arbor.
“This is a great way to eliminate the thousands of bottles that end up in trash cans throughout the year,” said Denise Murray, director of marketing and business development at Briarwood Mall.
“Shoppers can just deposit their cans here rather than tossing them in the trash can,” she said. “It’s not the intention that people would bring their cans from home, but we certainly would not discourage that.”
Murray said partnering with the Human Society was another way to advance Briarwood Mall’s extensive recycling efforts.
The deal comes after Simon Property Group, a real estate company that owns Briarwood Mall, was awarded Recycle Ann Arbor's Business Recycling Leaders Award last year. The award recognizes outstanding recycling and sustainability efforts on the part of Ann Arbor businesses.
Murray said the Simon Property Group is not charging rent for the recycling center and will keep it open as long as the storefront is available.
“If this space becomes unavailable and we had another one that was accessible, we would relocate the center,” said Murray.
Deb Kern, director of marketing and media relations for the Humane Society of Huron Valley, said volunteers from the Humane Society will pick up the collection center donations once or twice a week. The collection center does not require any employees.
The Humane Society of Huron Valley is a nonprofit animal shelter in Ann Arbor. Kern said 60 percent of the funding for the nonprofit comes from donations, while the other 40 percent is from adoptions and veterinary clinic fees.
The proceeds donated to the Humane Society will go towards general shelter care for the animals, Kern said.
“This is a win-win-win for us,” Kern said. “We get to help the animals, help with recycling and get our name out to people who may not know us.”
Lizzy Alfs is a business reporter for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at or 734-623-2584 or at lizzyalfs@annarbor.com. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lizzyalfs.
Comments
alnan
Wed, May 25, 2011 : 4:54 a.m.
Certainly I would use it. The Humane Society does wonderful work in trying to find homes for dogs and cats. And Briarwood is closer to my house than driving all the way to the Humane Society's building. Good luck with this effort all who are involved.!!
mkm17
Wed, May 25, 2011 : 1:29 a.m.
My apologies to a2sci and others, I didn't read the original article carefully enough!
a2scio
Tue, May 24, 2011 : 11:29 p.m.
I would prefer to see receptacles throughout the mall for both deposit cans/bottles and for recyclable containers. These could be placed in the mall corridors outside each of the 4 big stores and a couple by the info desk/ex-fountain area. There may be other places that needing receptacles - needs more study. While I support HSHV, could LOCAL non-profits take turns collecting the deposit items? Each interested non-profit could take a 3 or 6 month stint.
mkm17
Tue, May 24, 2011 : 9:32 p.m.
Denise, thank you for the clarification!
notinypsi
Tue, May 24, 2011 : 9:25 p.m.
I feel if people want to lug their cans to that location in order to recycle them to benefit the HSHV, I say more power to them and thank you. Thank you for recycling and supporting the HSHV.
Denise J. Murray
Tue, May 24, 2011 : 9:01 p.m.
The location is intended for the large numbers of bottles and cans currently discarded at the mall in the trash receptacles and is not intended for people to bring large bags from home. We (Briarwood Mall) hope that the shoppers and mall employees support the HVHS through this means. We are continuously looking for ways to reduce waste, save energy and participate with our community partners in ways that are meaningful. We here at Briarwood have been working on bringing recycling to the shopping center for many years, and are excited to see it finally come to life. We hope to see this program take off, and are grateful for our partnership with HVHS, which without it and the efforts of Recycle Ann Arbor this program would not be possible.
karla765
Tue, May 24, 2011 : 8:13 p.m.
This is a great idea and I like that it supports HSHV. However, I think if there were recycling bins throughout the mall or at least next to the machines that sell soda and water, or next to trash cans, that more people would be apt to use the program. I say this only because I know that if a person (majority of people) was on the opposite side of the mall with an empty can they're not going to go out of their way to take it to a recycle center way on the other side--they're going to find the closest trash can to through it away. I do understand that this now involves more effort on the recycle center employees or volunteers to collect throughout the mall. I do hope though that this program takes off and benefits HSHV.
Turd Ferguson
Tue, May 24, 2011 : 8:10 p.m.
This is a bit confusing. Recycle Center or Returnables? I would not be bringing in my bags of recyclable plastics to the mall with me. Nor would I be bringing in my returnables. The only recyclables they would get from me is the pop I bought while shopping there.
LBH
Tue, May 24, 2011 : 7:38 p.m.
I am assuming that this is for returnable bottles, correct?
Holy Cow
Tue, May 24, 2011 : 7:32 p.m.
I am really happy to hear about this. I don't really like to take my cans back to the store and try to wait for a sports team, dance school etc to come around and collect them. It is a win-win situation. I don't have to take my cans back and the groups get extra money. Because I am a big fan of HSHV I will definitely bring my cans in. I usually park by JC Penney any how. Hope this works out well for HSHV!
A2rez
Tue, May 24, 2011 : 7:28 p.m.
I think this is awesome. I will definitely use this.
mkm17
Tue, May 24, 2011 : 7:17 p.m.
I am a big supporter of HSHV, but I have to say I would not use this service. Bottles and cans are not heavy, but they are bulky. For that reason I would usually use a grocery cart to take returnables from my vehicle to the recycling center at Kroger or Meijer. I really can't see myself lugging returnables into the mall. I would mail a check for $10 or $20 before I would bring returnables into Briarwood. Having said that, I hope the new program works out well for HSHV!
a2scio
Tue, May 24, 2011 : 11:16 p.m.
It says right in the article that the space at the mall is NOT for cans/bottles from home,