MyNorth News Service

(Press Release provided by Michigan Green Consortium)

TRAVERSE CITY: On Sunday, April 26 between 9:00am and 3:00pm, the grounds of American Waste’s facility at 280 Hughes Drive in Traverse City will transform into a recycle, repurpose and reuse collection area for Michigan Green Consortium’s spring 2015 Clean Up and Green Up. Held once in spring and again in fall, the Clean Up and Green Up event is designed to inspire residents to divert items that have either further use or salvageable components from area landfills. The Clean Up and Green Up event is put on for residents of the neighboring 6-county area.

17 area companies will join the Michigan Green Consortium on April 26 to accept a whole host of items, large and small, that can and should be repurposed and recycled. New to the event is Image 360, in Station 3, who accepts all types of commercial and residential signage and graphics materials, including way-finder signs, neon, backlit structures, banners and graphic displays of all varieties. Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore in Station 8 accepts plastic grocery (shopping) bags, books, wallpaper (full rolls), screen doors, ladders, tools and power tools, outdoor furniture, clean and reusable upholstered furniture. At Station 4, Batteries Plus collects auto batteries, power tool batteries, rechargeable and NiCad batteries and up to 5-lbs of alkaline batteries per household. The Business Helper in Station 13 takes Styrofoam packing peanuts, bio peanuts, bubble wrap and air packing pillows, while B & T Appliance located in Station 9 takes large appliances such as dishwashers, washing machines and dryers to repair and place back into service for area nonprofit organizations.

Cherryland Electric Cooperative and Traverse City Light & Power, in Stations 13 and 14, respectively, offer their customers incentives in the form of rebates for recycling certain inefficient appliances. Cherryland Electric Cooperative customers receive $30.00 for each refrigerator or freezer and $15.00 for each qualifying air conditioner and dehumidifier recycled at the event. Traverse City Light and Power customers receive $60.00 for a full-size refrigerator or freezer and $15.00 for air conditioners and dehumidifiers recycled that day. Appliances in these programs must power up or energize in order to be eligible for the rebates. Customers should bring copies of their bills to qualify. Refrigerant from these freezers, refrigerators, air conditioners and dehumidifiers is safely evacuated by We Recycling, in Station 16, who also accept mercury-filled thermostats, thermometers and propane tanks, and wooden farm-style windows.

The non-profit creative reuse center, SCRAP TC in Station 5, accepts materials that can be used in creative projects. Items of particular interest to ScrapTC include paper, fabric & notions, artist and craft supplies, scrapbooking & gift wrapping supplies and architectural items. Since SCRAP TC’s list of acceptable items is both quite specific and long it is included on the Clean Up and Green Up website.

Clean and reusable building elements and materials, cabinets, doors and reusable sections of lumber and rigid insulation can be dropped off that day to Station 7 with Odom Reusable Building Materials, and fluorescent tubes and compact fluorescent light bulbs can be turned in to the Home Depot at Station 2. Outdoor equipment such as chainsaws, snow blowers, string trimmers, mowers, air compressors or generators can be dropped off to Station 5 as Roy’s General Store repairs them for reuse. Padnos, positioned at the end of the lineup in Station 17, accept large appliances that are not repairable, barbecue grills and anything else comprised of ferrous and non-ferrous metals that is at the end of its service days. All plastics, including those numbered 1 through 7 and plastic items that do not bear a number, as well as glass, tin, aluminum cans, all paper products, aseptic cartons and car seats that have had the padding and metal components removed are accepted by American Waste in Station 1.

The items accepted by Goodwill in Station 10 run the gamut from essential household items to games to computers. The broad range of items includes bicycles, cell phones, hearing aids, clean and resalable furniture items, clothing, linens, shoes & boots, musical instruments, reading glasses, video games and gaming systems, all brands of computer desktop towers (CPUs) and monitors. Styrofoam and all types of electronic waste such as cameras, laptops and computer peripherals, small electronics and printer ink cartridges are collected by Bay Area Recycling for Charities and their collaborative partner ERecoveryMI in Stations 11 and 12.

One television per vehicle will be accepted at the event, also at Station 12. “Clean Up and Green Up is the most comprehensive recycling event of its kind, and one designed to help recover items that might otherwise end up in area landfills. Items that at times are not only bulky but also contain hazardous elements as well.” Such is the case with the older analog television sets, that are finding their way into our waste stream now that flat screen technology has been fully embraced across the country. “The electronic waste industry is in a complete state of flux,” commented Cooper-Froehlich, “As costs associated with recycling and safe recovery of the heavy metals in them skyrocketed from somewhere around $.02-lb to closer to $.25-lb late last year. Until the volatility of these processing costs stabilizes, although it’s our wish to keep this event entirely free of charge to all residents, it would be irresponsible of MGC to take in more television sets than we, as a non-profit, can afford to recycle. Therefore, we are asking for a $5.00 minimum tax-deductible contribution for each television unit recycled at this event in the hope that those funds will help us to cover their processing and proper disposal costs.

There is a short list of other items that MGC is NOT equipped to accept at this spring 2015 event, but ones that MGC plans to resume accepting in the future, as on occasion, a partner company may not be able to participate for one reason or another. Such is the case this spring with Team Elmer’s and GT ProFILE, who will not be in the lineup this time.

Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Michigan Green Consortium, Ella Cooper-Froehlich reminds residents to consult the event-related website for specific details on the items that will be collected at the April 26th event and encourages patrons to turn out early if they wish to recycle specific items for which event limits exist.

The Michigan Green Consortium’s event-related website provides specific details as to both accepted and prohibited items and a sitemap to facilitate unloading at the various stations, which is vital to a smooth event. To learn more about the Clean Up and Green Up event, visit the event website at www.cleanupgreenup.com, the Consortium’s website, www.mgconline.org or the event page on Facebook.

Established in 2008, Michigan Green Consortium is a 501c3 not for profit organization. Its mission is to foster the general knowledge of sustainable practices and to promote the application of sound environmental stewardship through educational workshops, seminars, monthly networking events, and community-wide events designed to lessen the burden on government. i The Michigan Green Consortium (MGC) has quickly achieved notoriety for its recycling efforts and was named Recycle Smart Business of the Year in 2011.