WARREN, Ohio — Clover Recycling is one of the oldest recyclers in the country, and it’s located right here in Ohio, in Trumbull County.

Owner Jenny Smith said they recycle just about everything, even items most other places don’t accept.

“If you buy anything in the store that is plastic, you can recycle it here, except for plastic bags,” Smith said.

Smith grew up in a family of recyclers.

“We’ve been around since 1972,” she said. “We were in Howland for 50 years, but we outgrew that location shortly after I purchased it from my dad. It’s been a family business since 1987.”

Clover Recycling moved into their new 80,000 square-foot facility in July. Since then, they have recycled more than 250,000 pounds of materials and processed about another 100,000 pounds.

Clover Recycling is a 501c3 nonprofit. Smith may be the CEO, but she said she doesn’t collect a paycheck from Clover Recycling, instead running it as a volunteer.

“Our goal is to be a niche recycling center, community drop off, but we often joke that we are a community center with a recycling program,” Smith said.

She said people will travel from out of state to come recycle at her facility because Smith can recycle some materials that other recyclers can’t process.

“People come from all over because of that reason,” Smith said. “They will save up their items and bring them in to have as much of a zero footprint as they possibly can.”

Volunteers like Brandy Bajwa spend hours here during the week, helping sort through tons of boxes of recycling.

“I come here to volunteer, to help Jenny out,” Bajwa said, as she broke down a cardboard box. “This is it. This is what we do.”

Some of the volunteer work comes from a furrier helper.  

“We have a couple of warehouse cats who help keep the mouse problem down,” Smith said.

Household goods aren’t the only thing they recycle at Clover.

“On the left are donations from corporate,” Smith said. “These are resold to anyone who needs them, whether they’re consumers or businesses.”

Most of the goods sold are at 50 cents per pound.

“We recommend project hobbyists to always stop here first,” Smith said.

Besides taking household goods, Smith teaches businesses how to be more sustainable.

“We provide a free sustainability review,” said Smith. “We go to your facility. It takes about an hour to go through your processes, your businesses lines as well as your dumpsters.”

Some of those partners include large, international companies.

“We have some local warehouses like Transglobal and Foxconn,” Smith said. “We also work in Mahoning County with Amazon.”

She plans to continue expanding Clover Recycling to include more commercial partners.