Atlanta Nonprofit Takes Recyclables With Few to No OptionsAtlanta Nonprofit Takes Recyclables With Few to No Options
About 15 years ago, Peggy Whitlow Ratcliffe launched Atlanta’s first household hazardous waste collection program, which has since evolved into Thrive Live, a nonprofit that manages two "Centers for Hard-to-Recycle Materials" (CHaRMs). In 2024 alone, her team diverted 5.8 million pounds of materials from landfills, partnering with residents and major corporations like Delta Airlines and Coca-Cola to recycle, re-purpose, or re-engineer 96% of the waste into products.

About 15 years ago, Atlanta’s first household hazardous waste collection program launched, orchestrated by a resident who has since grown that project into an operation that collects about 100 different materials not allowed in the blue bins or trash. Ninety-six percent of what’s recovered gets recycled, re-purposed, or re-engineered, according to Peggy Whitlow Ratcliffe. She’s the entrepreneur behind that first collection project and founder of the nonprofit that evolved from it: Thrive Live.
In 2024 alone her small but mighty team collected, sorted, and baled 5.8 million pounds of materials at one of two “Centers for Hard-to-Recycle Materials” (aka CHaRMs). Residents drop off a good share of what comes through the doors; but plenty is picked up from some of the country’s largest outfits—Delta Airlines, Chick-fil-A, and State Farm Arena to name a few.
Would-be discards move on for processing and then to end users like oil major Shell who purchases wax made from plastics for multiple applications.
Styrofoam goes into insulation. And plastic stretch film is made into other building materials. But there is plenty more captured that makes its way into any of a number of products. There is no shortage of generators or offtakers.
“We are fortunate here in Atlanta to have so many large corporations. They have helped us grow. Their interests are in responsibly discarding their end-of-life materials and reaching their zero-waste goals.
“So, it was asking, how can we help each other? How do we show the good things that Coca-Cola, Novelis, and other corporations do to try to make a difference?” Whitlow Ratcliffe says.
The supply chain network reaches far.
WestRock, Pratt Industries, and Griff Network take in mountains of cardboard boxes to make into new boxes.
Truckloads of paint and chemicals go to Clean Harbors who makes fuel blends or landfill covers and incinerates what is not recyclable.
Liberty Tire melts and liquefies tires that get mixed with asphalt for road fill. And Nexus Circular turns volumes of hard-to-recycle plastics into an oil-based material for eating utensils and other applications.
When discards can be used in their original form they are, including some of the roughly 200,000 pounds of paint that land at the two CHaRMs in a year. Some of it is given to artists and schools for their projects. Sometimes the paint serves more than just the obvious purpose—bringing imposing, colorful murals to life to show kids this material has value.
Sometimes it takes a little work to prepare products for their next home, but they are welcome once they get there.
National nonprofit Furniture Bank takes old mattresses and hires formerly homeless veterans to deconstruct, sterilize, restuff, and reface them. They become like-new belongings for people who have been hard hit by disasters or other tough times.
Old trombones, horns, and other musical instruments that might otherwise go to scrap yards get refurbished and gifted to kids who may not otherwise be able to afford them.
“It's very exciting to know there are so many people who can use these things in some shape or form. There's a life for almost every single item that we receive,” Whitlow Ratcliffe says.
To go back to the beginning—the moment in time that inspired that first hazardous waste collection project— her parents had passed away. And she had to deal with all of their belongings that they had left behind.
“My dad was a gardener, and he had pesticides and herbicides from the 70’s and 80’s that needed to be disposed of.”
There were shelves and cabinets filled with paints, chemicals, and other household supplies there was no obvious home for.
“I went to the municipality to find out where I could take them. But there were no solutions at the time.
“So, I took what started as a personal project and began working to try and help others who find themselves in the same position I was in. People wanting to find solutions for what they don’t know what to do with,” Whitlow Ratcliffe says.
Partnerships are key to making programs like this work.
CompostNow can vouch for that. The organization began collaborating with Thrive Live to collect food scraps for its operations, but the relationship grew into much more. Now when the composter, stretched across several states, comes for the black bins, drivers drop off hard-to- recycle materials. It’s meant being able to offer customers another service beyond organics collections, and to expand its geographical reach.
“Collaborating with organizations like Thrive Live allows us to identify the best solutions for handling new waste streams,” says Kat Nigro, CompostNow chief operating officer.
“We have leaned on their wealth of experience and knowledge, which has guided us in finding trusted partners in our other communities. These relationships continue to evolve as we work together to expand access to responsible recycling and create even greater impact,” Nigro says.
Lately Thrive Live has been prioritizing community education, hosting classes, workshops, and facility tours. Next on the nonprofit’s hopeful agenda is to secure a grant to develop an environmental education center.
Says Whitlow Ratcliffe: “Focusing on the education side of recycling is important to us. For it to work well, people need to understand the why.”
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