The Park District of Franklin Park complemented the electronics recycling that is a staple of its annual Earth Day celebration by adding shredding to the mix this year.
“This is our very first year having the shred truck for Earth Day. It’s just to make it more convenient for residents of Franklin Park to recycle and get their documents shredded,” Jen Costa, parks services assistant for the Park District of Franklin Park, told Pioneer Press.
Costa worked with Julio Cuomo, marketing coordinator for Partnership Financial Credit Union, who she said worked with others to bring the shredding truck to the Earth Day commemoration April 22 at North Park.
According to Costa, 2,500 pounds were shredded, which filled approximately a quarter of the truck.
“Normally we have at least 250-plus people attend. This year I’d say it was close to 100 people that attended,” she said, attributing the lower Earth Day celebration turnout to bad weather.
Still, Costa said there was a good turnout for electronics recycling compared to years prior.
“We’ve had the electronics recycling every year for quite a while now. This is the first year that they have had three pallets full of electronics that they took away,” she said.
Mike Saeli, the village’s Streets Department supervisor, told Pioneer Press that approximately 50 items were collected for electronics recycling during the two-hour Earth Day event outdoors.
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“It was quite a bit: computers, TVs and just general electronics. Some stuff was small but there was a lot of bigger items too. It was a decent turnout. Considering that it was raining, we collected a lot,” Saeli said.
According to Saeli, televisions, computers and printers made up the majority of the electronics submitted for recycling, but there also were small items such as clock radios and obsolete electronics.
“It makes it more convenient for the seniors and just people in general. Also, we have staff there assisting with unloading the car if they have something that’s heavy. They don’t have to take it out and put it in the normal drop-off that we have,” he said about the village accepting the electronic recyclables.
“You can’t throw electronics in the garbage so (they have) to be taken to a special waste facility where they break down some of the stuff to extract the electronics and recycle the plastics out of it too,” Saeli said.
Items listed on the village website as acceptable for recycling include monitors, laptop computers, televisions, computers, printers, cell phones, stereos, game consoles, phones, DVD players, videocassette recorders, scanners, copiers, personal digital assistants, keyboards and mouse, and fax machines.
MP3 players and iPods, terminals (green screen), multifunction machines, computer parts, electric typewriters, UPS batteries, electric cash registers, microwaves, toaster ovens, curling irons, hair dryers and electronic tools are among the other items listed as acceptable for recycling.
“(Recycling) saves everything from going into landfills and is greener for the Earth,” said Costa, who coordinated the Earth Day recycling event with Liz Strack, program and aquatics manager for the Park District of Franklin Park.
Costa said the longtime annual event promotes saving the Earth in several ways, including seed, honey and wooden toothbrush giveaways, packets on how to recycle and compost, interactive booths, games, prizes, a recycled tire art display and the planting of a tulip tree in North Park.
“Early Childhood from the Park District of Franklin Park did a craft where participants can make butterflies out of recycled newspaper,” she said.
According to Costa, there were 28 vendors at the Earth Day event, which featured Franklin Park School District 84 represented by the Passow Elementary School student council giving out plants, and the Pietrini Elementary School student council offering a recycling game at its table.
Costa said Leyden High School District 212 was represented by the Engineering Club making bird feeders out of soda bottles, the Recycling Club explaining different ways to recycle and the Service Club having seeds in egg shells, which offers a way to reuse eggs and provides calcium for plants.
Jessi Virtusio is a freelancer.