If you joined in any of Berrien County’s community recycling events over the past year, give yourself a big pat on the back. You were part of a record rate of participation saving literal tons from local landfills or otherwise unsafe disposal.
Jill Adams, Environmental Property Manager for the Berrien County Parks Department tells us that her line up of events enjoyed record breaking participation at her Community Recycling Events over the past year. She issued today, “Kudos to the over 2,560 Berrien County residents who took extra efforts to ensure their hard-to-handle waste items were recycled or disposed of properly, protecting both public and environmental health, at the six County sponsored collection events.”
Residents brought in 117,000 lbs of household hazardous waste, which includes items like oil-based paint, spent batteries, unwanted yard chemicals, and unused household medications. Think about it. That’s nearly 60-tons of waste.
Residents also recycled 82,500 lbs of electronics waste, which includes TVs, computers, appliances, dehumidifiers, and the like at those events.
Furthermore, the County coordinated Spring Residential Scrap Tire Collection saw approximately 5,800 passenger tires collected for recycling from county residents.
The county has offered these collection events to residents since 1996. The program has changed and grown over the years, along with the change in residential waste streams. Although these community collection events are done for 2019, those services are available to Berrien County residents year around in a variety of different forms.
The Kalamazoo County Household Hazardous Waste Center is available for Berrien County residents to use, free, year around. When utilizing the Kalamazoo HHW Center, Berrien County residents must show an ID with an address. Accepted items there include household, yard & garden, garage, and workshop chemicals, cleaners, and liquids. You can see the full list of accepted and not accepted items, the hours of operation, the location, and more online at the link below:
http://www.kalcounty.com/hcs/eh/hhw/?qpdsdf=hhw
Additionally, Green Earth Electronics Recycling, the company that provides the electronics recycling services at the community events, is located at 4200 Niles Road in St. Joseph. They are open Monday – thru – Friday from 8 am to 3 pm, excluding holidays, for electronics drop-off. You can contact Green Earth at 269-326-1232, or go to www.greenearth1.com for more information.
Other options for recycling and disposal of household hazardous waste, electronics, paper document shredding, scrap tires and more can be found at this Berrien County Recycling Services website:
http://www.berriencounty.org/462/Recycling-Services
The 2020 Berrien County Community Recycling Events will kick off on Tax Day next April 15th with the 11th annual Reduce Reuse Recycle Day held at Lake Michigan College. Next year’s event dates and locations are now posted at www.berriencounty.org/564/Berrien-County-Community-Recycling-Event. More information will be added through the cold months as event details get confirmed.
