What clients say about The Center for Hard to Recycle Materials CHaRM in Atlanta (GA)
They make it easy to do something good for planet earth!
Make an appointment via the website and drop off anything that is difficult to recycle, then feel good about yourself!
it was incredibly frustrating to drive 45 minutes to the location only to be told that they do not accept disposable vapes despite saying so on the website. i called 3 times to be sure but was not able to get ahold of anyone, i assumed since the website said "any electronic devices that hold a charge or have a cord" that the vapes would be fine seeing as how they are electronic devices that hold a charge and there was no disclaimer to state otherwise. this place wasted my time and my gas, so be sure they actually accept what they say they do before going.
I booked an appointment and drove to CHARM today with miscellaneous things to recycle. They recommend that folks organize their drop-offs in the order of each station.
The styrofoam station attendants are super nice. Be sure to sort your food containers from regular packing styrofoam. Book donations are accepted at this station, too.
They accept fluorescent bulbs, not LEDs. They accept rechargeable batteries. They accept electronics and printer ink cartridges as well.
I forgot my cooking oil and grease today, but they do take that as well.
Next door is glass recycling, food-grade and flat.
Plasticville is impressive. I finally learned to sort my stretchy plastics from food-grade nonstretchy plastics. There are so many other plastics they take, so it will be a while for me to learn all the nuances. Just a note about recycling straws. They would like to have paper wrappers removed from new straws.
Also, recycle your milk cartons. You can leave the caps on them.
Such nice folks at CHARM. Smooth operators!
Friendly and helpful people! Unfortunately, CHaRM does not take dehumidifiers. I appreciated it though they told me that if you are a Georgia Power customer they will come and pick them up for free. I will try that instead!
It was a pleasant experience going there for the first time. Very impressive. Wish there were such facilities everywhere. My hats off to all the volunteers.
Service is well organized and the volunteer staff are friendly. It's getting difficult to work with the appointment scheduling system, though. The website and the third party service they use seem more and more often to be returning errors and failing to take you through to the page for selecting an appointment time... and usually by a Thursday, Saturday's appointments are all booked up. I understand they use the system to collect visitor data for grants but there has to be a more user-friendly way to gather the same data.
The people were nice and I appreciate the work they do. But, the cost to recycle mostly paint was super expensive. They charge .75 per pound and I has over 300 pounds of paint and a few other chemicals. Maybe there were places that are less expensive. But, I'm happy it will be properly disposed.
Maby other items are free such as plastics, boxes, aluminum etc. tires are $2.00. I will definitely use them again.
I made my first donation yesterday at CHaRM, It was very easy to book an appointment and the description of the site ensured that I packed my car in the order of the drop-off tents/trucks. There were SO many volunteers/workers who helped unload at each site. i will definitely donate on a regular basis now.
Excellent setup - well managed / organized. Booked an appointment, showed up on time, was in and out in 5 minutes. They were fully staffed, people available to help take heavy things. Super fast, easy, and friendly. Great resource.
Wow! This is a great place for getting rid of refuge in a safe matter. We made an online appointment, loaded the cardboard into the car and headed to Charm. You drive in and are greeted and asked what time is your appointment. They turn away anyone who does not have an appointment. They checked us off and pointed us to our station. There were workers there to help us unload the car.
There were stations for electronics, glass, cans, Styrofoam, paint, etc. We were in and out in less then 15 minutes.
We will be back with more refuge!
After an annoying experience at another facility, I found Live Thrive/Charm and was very pleased with my experience! The website was extremely helpful to start and upon arrival someone was there to check me in for my appointment and point us in the right direction for our recycling/donations. It appeared to all be outside but it was clean, organized, and staff was very helpful. I was in and out quickly and I’m thankful recycling centers like this exist to keep our earth cleaner and greener!
Great place to drop off recycling! I've been multiple times, but this week was the first time I've been since they implemented drop-off by appointment. Scheduling online was simple. I looked at their website diagram of the location that indicates where each thing (plastic/glass/paint/chemicals/styrofoam/etc) should be left. Best of all are the folks at the location who can tell you where to go and what's allowed in case you've forgotten or are unsure if an item is recyclable. I highly recommend CHaRM: it's an eco-friendly place to divest yourself of items without sending them to the landfill. Look at their website, you'll be surprised how many substances/items can be recycled. It's quick, it's easy, and it's helping the planet.
Wow! I don't think I could have imagined a more perfect set-up. While CHaRM is by appointment-only, they had tons of open slots and it made for a well-organized drop off. The greeting attendant was super friendly and prepared to answer any questions I had (they have a list of names so really, make an appointment!). Organized by type of recyclable, I was able to drop off an entire carload (50-60) of cardboard moving boxes. I struggled to put them all in my car at home but was greeted by two volunteers that assisted. I was able to drop off all my items in less than 10 minutes! (took about 20 to put them all in myself). I had been looking high and low for a drop-off because we just moved states and my home recycling can can't handle more than a few at a time. Will most definitely be back!
While I had made an appointment at CHaRM late the evening before, I wasn’t on the list for early the following morning. Regardless, I was allowed to enter, drive around the various stations, and unload numerous items from the back of my SUV. The center was very busy, but it was well-organized and the employees & volunteers were knowledgeable, courteous and quite helpful. The transaction charge - I had one item that I had to pay to recycle - was also a breeze. Our condo does have a recycling program, but CHaRM allows me to recycle SO much more!
This place was a great experience. I don’t trust the city recycling program to actually recycle, but these folks definitely do. Be prepared to sort your plastics; that reassures me they actually send them off for re-use. They didn’t take my car bumpers unfortunately so I had to dump them in garbage, but they took a lot of my other recyclables and the staff are very helpful. Even motor oil and coolant and such. Definitely worth the time to come here once a month and make sure your recyclables really get recycled.
The concept is great and you’re able to recycle a lot of different types of items, especially styrofoam which I can’t recycle anywhere else around here.
However, the scheduling requirement is absolute nonsense. When we arrived, we were told we could not drop off our items without an appointment, even though there was NOBODY else at the center. Our items are presorted by plastic number and some styrofoam, so it would have taken about 3 min to drive around the different stations to drop them off.
It seems like the staff doesn’t really care about items being recycled and don’t mind people throwing stuff in the trash rather than make an effort to recycle. We had accumulated recycling over the last few months and combined driving trips to save time and fuel since this is 30 min from where we live. That didn’t matter one bit.
The staff has been pretty rude on a couple of occasions and once charged our credit card $20 instead of $2 for dropped off paint. It goes to a good cause, but still…
The concept is great. Execution, not so much. I guess styrofoam and plastics 3-5 are now going in my trash at home. At least a recycling center close to me takes metal and glass, they are much nicer and actually help visitors, are open 6 days a week, and don’t require any scheduling (because people are there 3-5 min tops unloading their cars. There is no need to schedule when visitors wait 2 min at most).
I've been familiar with CHaRM's existence since day 1, and have been there numerous times over the years on business, but it was only this past Saturday when I had an opportunity to utilize their services. My son and I made a delivery of a couple of old appliances and a bunch of old paint and cleaning chemicals (about 140 lbs combined). The process was seamless, the staff authentically friendly and helpful, and the experience overwhelmingly positive. The operation is a well-oiled machine, and I applaud CHaRM / LiveThrive's dedication to keeping harmful substances, as well as easily-recycled items, out of our landfills, and securing responsible and sustainable outlets for them. We will be back!
This group is fantastic. The facility well laid out. Appointments are necessary since Covid but make it less crowded. Go to their website to make one. They take so many items that municipal recycling programs do not take or accept and just landfill. So if you really want your plastics and other items recycled go to charm. Just came from there today, the orange bag program is going strong. These bags are available at Target and can be filled with harder to recycle items like food plastics and much more.
I used CHaRM for the first time yesterday. I had two old plastic gas containers that were full of very old gas. I emailed them first to be sure they accepted that. Their Executive Director replied very quickly to say they did in fact accept both old gas and the containers. I scheduled an appointment online, which was very easy to do. They run an amazing operation there with drop off stations for each type of material. The whole thing runs very smoothly, and everyone I spoke to there was extremely nice. KUDOS to this group. I highly recommend them and will definitely use them again.
Well organized and clean! They accept a lot of hard to recycle materials for a minimal cost. The volunteers are always so helpful and kind. I feel like I've done something good every time after my visit here. They are taking appointments now because of the pandemic, which has worked out really well, in my experience. Highly recommend it!
Always an easy pleasant experience! The staff is always so nice and helpful! Everything is organized and coordinated very well so it’s quick even if you need to stop at multiple stations. So appreciative to have such a great place to take our electronics, plastic, paint, and more so they done wind up in landfills! Thank you CHaRM!
I really appreciate the service CHARMS provides. They allow me to feel like I'm disposing used goods in a responsible manner. The customer service of their workers is always great. Even if you don't use their services, please consider visiting their website to give a monetary donation to help continue the mission.
I LOVE this Recycling Center, and I wish more people knew about it. So easy and organized. I was so happy to see that it was packed on a Saturday; so many dedicated Citizen Scientists out there doing their part. The associates were super helpful and uber friendly. We enjoy making this one of our Saturday early AM errands! Thank you to all those who help and recycle at CHARM <3!
This place is THE BEST! They've helped me recycle so many things that most people don't even realize are recyclable, like styrofoam, all types of plastic, paint containers, etc.
The volunteers are so helpful and kind and we are so lucky to have this place in Atlanta. (As a comparison, other cities I've lived in charge you to dump - not even recycle - a lot of the things they take, like mattresses, porcelain, etc). They also take donations of both good, usable clothes (which goes to support The Kidney Foundation) as well as unusable clothes and other cloth items (tattered or otherwise ruined clothes, backpacks, etc).
If you're wondering if they'll take your item, check out their site. Chances are they do! Do your part for the planet and recycle everything you can here.
Thank you for all you do, CHaRM! :)
I love CHaRM. You can take any kind of recycling there, even tires and glass AND art supplies for "creative reuse." Also, you can drop off papers to be shredded. A great place for kids to do service projects, too.
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