St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Easy Highway 7 decided their Christmas outreach would be for the recycling crew working tirelessly behind the scenes at Henry County Industries, giving gift bags for each worker filled with candies and a gift card. Sam and Kate French, church members were able to deliver the gifts and visit with workers. The recycling crew works hard to make recycling possible for Clinton.
Henry County Industries is a shelter workshop that provides training and employment for people with disabilities and serves as the recycling center for the community and surrounding areas. Director Carley Ross stated that everything is now back up and running with the program. Broken equipment had brought recycling to a near stop. An anonymous community member stepped forward with a large amount of money to fix the equipment and additional community members made donations in case more was needed.
Operations have changed and outside drop off areas are open 24/7 and accept cardboard, tin and aluminum. Containers need to be clean as the facility has no way to wash them. Dirty containers are thrown away. Everything else needs to be taken inside. The inside facility is open from 7:30 AM to 1:30 PM and accepts Plastic #1 and 2 only. No caps are accepted and bottles need to be rinsed out. White paper, mixed paper, newspapers, books and magazines also need to be taken inside.
Henry County Industries also provides its own outreach to stray cats in the area. Anyone making drop offs in the summer has seen the cats. In the winter, the cats are brought inside. They are crucial in keeping the rat and mice population under control The Clinton animal shelter provided spaying and neutering services.
Anyone needing to reach the Recycling Center can call 660-885-7762.