The fourth “E-rase your E-waste” collection event of the summer is coming up Thursday, Aug. 18 from 3-7 p.m. at the Richland County Shop, Sidney. The event is FREE and is the final of four summer month collections planned as part of the 2011 E-rase your E-waste campaign. The final collection for the year will be the group’s annual weekend event set for Friday and Saturday, Sept. 9-10.
The county repair shop is located at 2140 W. Holly, Sidney, next to the fairgrounds. Participants are asked to please use the airport road entrance. Signs will be posted.
Organizers estimate that they’ve already collected more than 30,000 lbs. or 15 tons of e-waste at their first three summer month events. Helping with all the loading, unloading and packaging of all that e-waste have been several “e-waste your e-waste” committee members and a number of other volunteers, including several from the Sidney High School Key Club and the local Retired Seniors Volunteer Program. Helping at the July event were Key Clubbers Katie Staffanson, Taylor Fay, Cierra Parks and Brant Pewonka, and dedicated RSVP volunteer Stan Lindblom “We’ve had great help,” E-rase your E-waste co-chair Jackie Couture said. “And it’s been invaluable given the amounts of e-waste we’ve been seeing at these summer month collections, with typically over 10,000 lbs. collected in just four hours at each event.”
UNICOR is the e-cycler for all the collections, and all acceptable items can be recycled for FREE, Couture noted, both at Thursday’s event and at the upcoming weekend event in September. More information on acceptable items is available at http://www.ars.usda.gov/npa/nparl/ewaste. Businesses, schools and other organizations with large amounts of e-waste to recycle are asked to make an appointment to drop off their items by calling Jackie Couture at 406-433-9422. Please leave a message.
Where possible larger recyclers are also encouraged to palletize their own items, or send extra staff to help get it done at the summer events. Details on acceptable items and how to palletize them can be found in a handout posted to the USDA-ARS Northern Plains Agricultural Research Lab’s e-waste website at http://www.ars.usda.gov/npa/nparl/ewaste. In addition, a handy “Items List” recycling form is also available at the website to further speed processing time for participants bringing both large and small amounts, Couture noted.
The E-rase your E-waste effort in Sidney is coordinated by members of the Richland County Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC), Richland Opportunities Inc., and volunteers with other community organizations. Several local businesses including Sidney Health Center, Lower Yellowstone REA and Sidney Sugars as well as the City of Sidney, Richland County and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality have also provided financial, in-kind and promotional support.
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