Darla Hale of Aurora had an old computer she needed to get rid of and was thankful to have a place to recycle it properly on Saturday morning.
“This is the first time I’ve used this. It’s a free service and it’s local and really helpful,” Hale said as she prepared to leave a collection area during the Electronics Recycling Drive-Thru event organized by the city of Aurora’s Property Standards Division.
The event was held at the Route 59 Metra station on the far East Side of Aurora.
“I’ll definitely be back the next time they have one of these collections if I have something to get rid of,” Hale said.
Over a four-hour span, workers helped empty cars of a vast list of items that included televisions, computers, printers and cables along with household items including electric toothbrushes, fryers, hair dryers, holiday lights and more.
“This serves as one of the most popular events of the year here in Aurora,” Aurora Director of Property Standards Josh Alcaraz said in a press release about the event. “We appreciate being able to provide this service to the community and look forward to helping all residents safely dispose of older electronics, helping to sustain our environment.”
Jon Zaghloul, director of communications for the city of Aurora, said the electronics recycling effort “is one of the more popular events we offer in the city of Aurora.”
“Every year, the event draws over 2,000 vehicles. We have an event app that allows people to sign up and once again, we are trending at about that amount,” he said before the event. “It is a safe, efficient and convenient way for our residents to recycle older electronics. It certainly promotes sustainability and we want to make sure we provide our residents with a safe and effective way to recycle some of these older electronics.”
Zaghloul added that “the thing that makes this event so popular is the variety of electronics that the city accepts.”
“It is such a variety of things and that’s what makes it so popular. The amount of items we are able to take,” he said.
Collection service at the event was provided by Shorewood-based A Team Recyclers.
A Team Recyclers Supervisor James Larkin spoke while directing his crew Saturday about how much material he expected to collect and what some of the challenges are during the effort.
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“We’ve been doing this a long time. It’s pretty regulated and we have people coming in every 15 minutes in blocks, so it’s keeps everybody at a similar pace. There’s never a long line,” he said. “After we pack up we bring it back to our facility and sort through the stuff and process it to be shredded or dismantled or disposed of. This will be about 100,000 to 120,000 pounds of stuff.”
Bob Vanslobig of Aurora said he brought “some cords and some old-fashioned electronics I don’t use anymore” to the recycling event Saturday.
“I’m retired and I’m on a kick to clean house and I started collecting all my old electronics and I saw this and it’s perfect,” he said. “I feel good things are being recycled the right way. Otherwise, you struggle trying to find ways to get rid of stuff.”
James Clemons of Aurora said he brought in two televisions to recycle at the event.
“I’ve been holding on to these for five years,” he said. “I’m glad to finally have a place to get rid of them.”
Gary Pennington of Aurora said he had a vacuum cleaner and other items to drop off at the event.
“This is a great way to de-junk the house,” he said.
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.