Shredding/Recycling Day 9/22/2018 Information

Kiwanis Club of West Geauga Believes in Recycling

 

WG Kiwanis together with the Chesterland Recycling Committee built the Recycle Park in 2015 on Rt 306 with $29K funding by the Township Trustees.  The previous location  of the recycling bins by the town hall was a serious safety concern as they were in the path of the fire, emergency and service vehicles. As avid recyclers we all had experiences where we paid for curbside recycling only to see the waste haulers use the same truck to haul both garbage and recyclables, or have heard or seen other evidence that recycling was not really taking place. We wanted to see recycling in our community to be done responsibly and right – following the lead of the progressives on the East and West coasts. We mid-westerners could successfully clean, sort and recycle as the best of them.

 

The Recycle Park is a Not Dump

 

However, it is a learning curve. We all need to learn what IS and what IS NOT recyclable. The single stream bins at the Recycle Park allow co-mingling of different recyclables. But just throwing something into the bins does not make it recyclable. They are also not WISH bins as “I wish this to be recyclable”.

 

You must read the signs on the bins to see what IS acceptable: Rinsed clean bottles, cans, foil and steel trays and plastic containers – but only plastic containers that carry the numbers 1-7 stamped on them with the recycle icon. If NO recycle icon, or it does not include the numbers 1-7, the plastic item IS NOT recyclable at this time, do not throw in the bins. Take it home with you and throw it out in your garbage can.

 

Do NOT leave items outside the bins. That is equivalent to and fineable as littering.

 

Collect your recyclables in any container you wish, but empty the contents and take that container back with you. Plastic Bags are contaminants that jam the recycling equipment, cause costly downtime and reduces the value of what is trying to be recycled.  Plastic bags can and are successfully recycled (e.g. TREX composite decking) separately at the collection bin outside of Giant Eagle.

 

Kiwanis Club of WG Yearly Shredding & Recycling Events

 

Every year since 2007 (except 2015 when we were building the Recycle Park) Kiwanis Club of WG has provided yearly events to bridge the gap in what can be successfully recycled in our community. Our drives now collect:

 

-            Document Shredding of identity sensitive content (which then is recycled)

 

-            Electronics (useable items are refurbished and donated to local schools and non-profits).  

 

-            Scrap Metal (which is mined for value metals and pays for the event)

-            Bicycles (partners with Ohio City Bicycle Co-Op to provide youth through the “Earn A Bike” program” and awarded to refugees with needed dependable and inexpensive transportation.

 

 

Gold Mining

 

If done correctly, there is money in recycling. WG Kiwanis has been paying for this community event by mining the value metals that can be found in the scrap metal brought in for housecleaning.  The first step is to separate ferrous (magnetic) metals from non-ferrous (non-magnetic) metals. The non-ferrous metals such as aluminum, copper, brass, and lead command higher scrap metal prices than the ferrous metals (steel & iron). The better the metals can be separated and clean of dissimilar metals or other materials such as plastic and wood, they command higher “clean” cents/pound vs lower “dirty” cents/pound.   It is a labor intensive process but our event volunteers identify metals that can be harvested from appliances and discarded items by disassembling them. The Boy Scouts have been very successful and adept in these skills. If you would like to try your own hand at “mining” (children 8th grade or older only with parent supervision) or joining the Kiwanis, please contact us

                Steve Goden 216-533-1839 Sgoden@roadrunner.com

 

 

E-Waste ?

 

Electronic waste, commonly referred to as e-waste, is one of the fastest growing segments in the municipal solid waste stream. Although nearly 100 percent of e-waste is recyclable, the current recycling rate of e-waste is not promising at 12.5 percent..

 

What is so bad about E waste?

 

When electronics end up in landfills, toxins leach into the soil and water. E-Waste affects nearly every system in the human body because they contain a plethora of toxic components including Mercury, Lead, Cadmium, Polybrominated Flame Retardants, Barium and Lithium.     The irony is that these special metals are in limited supply as natural resources, and would represent a huge cost savings to reclaim them rather than the expense and energy of mining, extracting and smelting them down from raw materials.

How much e waste is thrown away each year?

 

20 to 50 million metric tons of e-waste are disposed worldwide every year. Cell phones and other electronic items contain high amounts of precious metals like gold or silver. Americans dump phones containing over $60 million in gold/silver every year.

What should we do with our old electronics?

 

1.     Don't trash them - we should never throw e-waste in the trash!

2.     Pass them on for reuse. ...

3.     Recycle them (Kiwanis event). ...

4.     Find a good e-waste recycler (RET3).

5.     Best Buy stores

6.     Geauga Trumbull Solid Waste District Household Hazardous Waste drives

7.     Do a cell phone recycling drive and fundraiser in your school.

8.     Learn to fix broken gadgets yourself

 

Where can I Recycle…?

 

Our aim is to research and select vendors to provide the best no-brainer recycling of your unwanted items.  The following provides some background on our selection criteria. Feel free to visit their websites to hear their stories and what they have to offer:

 

Document Shredding by Great Lakes Record Center

Expressshredding.com 440/946-9300 8001 Moving Way Mentor, Ohio 44060

 

Provides staff to unload your documents out of your vehicle, placing them in secure trucks to be taken back to their facility for environmental offsite shredding. No burning diesel and fumes from an idle shredder, minimizes wait time with far greater capacity and throughput while avoiding potential jamming, breakdown and backlog issues with on-site shredders.

 

 

Electronics Recycling by RET3 Job Corp

Ret3.org 216-361-9991 1814 East 40th Street Cleveland, OH 44103

-        Refurbish, Reuse, Recycle – dispose of E-waste in sustainable and eco- friendly way

-        One of the few companies that accepts and responsibly recycles old TV’s

-        Recycling Industry Certified  

-        Charitable - reuses serviceable parts to refurbish thousands of computers every year for distribution to schools and non-profit organizations.

-        Unusable equipment is subsequently de-manufactured and the individual components are separated for reuse, and the balance sold as raw materials to Original Equipment Manufacturers. This includes glass, plastics, metals, ink cartridges, cardboard, circuit boards and other raw materials.

-        Trusted – hard drives and other physical media is scrubbed or physically destroyed to ensure your data is kept safe

-        Committed No Landfill guarantee means all electronic waste that comes through our facility will either be reused or harvested for parts or recycled and will never see a landfill

-        RET3 Job Corp. is a non-profit organization dedicated to Refurbishing, Reusing, and Recycling computer and electronic equipment while Educating and Training recipients and the transitional workforce to repair, upgrade, and use computers; thus helping to shrink the digital divide and create a more productive and technologically adept workforce in northeast Ohio.