LETTER: Praises for Renaissance Recycling

 I love the great work Jill Gray and her helpers at the Renaissance Recycling Center are doing for our community and the earth. Jill definitely has a wonderful vision for recycling and saving money. Every time I take my recycling and engage with the LaRue County Detention Center inmates, I see an even greater vision that Jill is creating.

I moved here from Berea about a year ago. Berea is all about recycling, green energy, sustainability and local food. I wondered if LaRue County would value these kinds of initiatives. When I heard about Renaissance Recycling and the cool things Jill was doing with glass, I got excited.

What has impressed me the most, however, has been my interactions with the inmates. Polite, professional, upbeat and eager to please are not usually associated with anything to do with dirty, smelly, messy jobs that solid waste and recycling entail, or with our usual view of inmates. Then I met Jill and I saw her greater vision. Her enthusiasm and compassion for her work and the members of her community are something awesome to behold.

There is way more going on at Renaissance Recycling than recycling cans, bottles and other items we no longer know what to do with. For some, inmates might fall into the “no longer know what to do with” category, as well. For Jill, there is no such thing. Whether it is glass or people, Jill’s vision of turning the less than desirable into something useful and beautiful is coming true in a little building on Water Street in Hodgenville.

Hunter Purdy

Magnolia