MACON, Ga. — Macon-Bibb County has a new Solid Waste Director, but she is not new to the department.
Junior Journalists Jacob Bailey and Sophia Boling "talk trash" with Pat Raines.
“I usually like to keep on my heels just to show 'em a lady can do it,” Raines said.
Raines is the first woman to hold the position of Solid Waste Director for Bibb County.
“I'm gonna do the best I can to uphold that position, but it's not just me,” she said.
Raines has 36 employees in her department. Most of them collect household trash and yard debris.
“We have to work whether it's 105 degrees or 10 degrees. People still want their garbage picked up,” Raines said.
Some work here at the landfill.
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“That's a good thing -- that you don't smell it,” Raines said.
We thought it would be stinky, but it is not. We also thought we would find a mountain of trash, but it was just a mountain..
“In the month of August, we collected 600 tons of yard waste,” Raines said. "And of just regular municipal solid waste, we collected 3,000 tons."
The trash is buried, then grass is planted. By 2022, the Macon-Bibb County landfill will be closed.
“Anything that we can keep out of our landfill only benefits us and our environment,” she said.
Raines says it is important for everyone to recycle, but she believes young people can really make a difference.
“It starts with you all because you all can take what you find in school, take it home and implement it, then you're educating your parents,” she said.
Raines says one goal she has is to have county workers collect trash instead of an outside company.
She has worked with Bibb County and the consolidated Macon-Bibb for 29 years.
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