Tell City Hall not to move downtown recycling site

Our president Steve Noble read an article in Saturday's paper (I can't find it online) about how the city wants to move the Louis Glick recycling drop-off site to Emmons on Water St. Here's Steve's full letter:

Hi All

Don't know how many of your saw the article in the paper on Saturday but
the city has come out and advised that they are considering moving the
downtown recycling site to Emmons facility on Water Street. This will
greatly limit access and drastically reduce the convenience for our
residents.

I'm sure there is more to this than what was printed but that will only
come out if there is controversy. I will be offering our thoughts about
this at the city commission meeting tomorrow night to hopefully stir up
discussions before the decision is made in August. More than anything
we need residents to call their commissioner to voice an opinion against
this action.

There are several options that could implemented rather than putting the
drop off site in an old industrial section of town with limited access.
One option is to repeal the ordinance that prevents curbside pickup of
trash and recyclables. Also there is a similar location that the city
could use across the street from the current location.

I will be offering our assistance to educate the public about the
benefits of recycling and the effects of midnight dumping.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Steve

Click over to "Contact" to find the phone number to reach Steve on this effort.

Recycling saves businesses money.

A little local news for you: The Saginaw News shows how going green can help business.

"Recycling and reducing waste should prove a no-brainer for business leaders because it impacts the bottom line, Duebbert said," and the article shows how up to one-third of waste comes from businesses, and how recyclable paper makes up the majority of that.

When a company goes green, side benefits include improved employee productivity as well as an improved standing among customers who also believe in recycling. Less waste means less cost for disposal, Duebbert said.

Nice to see a Michigan-based effort to get businesses to care more about waste management.

E-waste: taking responsibility

A thought struck me during our recent e-waste drive on June 21: by recycling, people are taking responsibility for their trash.

I couldn't believe how many CTR monitors (especially Dell monitors) and old TVs that came in. Part of the haul comes from people updating to flat-screen and LCD monitors, but I couldn't help but wonder - if all of these are just coming from Jackson residents, what's happening all over the country?

People loaded these electronic relics into their vehicles, drove them to Sam's Club on a Saturday, and gave us a donation to responsibly recycle them. That's quite a bit of effort, and it happened at least a hundred times on one weekend day.

The same kind of effort goes into everyday recycling. Keeping track of paper, plastic, metal, and glass in your home, seperating it, and taking it to a recycling drop-off site takes work. Recycling isn't for lazy people.

All of that work does a lot of good. And it makes people take responsibility - both in mental effort and in calories burned - for the trash they produce. We take from the earth's supply of natural resources, and instead of tossing it out we reuse it in some other product. We could just bury it. A lot of people do.

Recyclers, however, take a stand and say, "This will not go to waste."

Or at least we say, "We'll take care of it responsibly." Thanks for taking responsibility for your corner of the world. With our successful e-waste drives, it just goes to show that feeling is shared by more and more people.

> Go here for more e-waste drive photos

E-waste drive this Saturday

Join us for our annual summer e-waste drive this Saturday, June 21 at Sam's Club in Jackson from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Head to our e-waste page on our web site for a full list of suggested donations for items. Notice the price drop: because of volume, our e-waste recycler is cutting everyone a deal, which we appreciate.

Recycling Jackson's e-waste drive is happening at the same time the Jackson County Health Department is hosting their Household Hazardous Waste drive (scroll down for their flyer). So a quick trip across town and you can get some responsible cleaning done.

Please bring your computers, TVs, stereos, cellphones, and other electronic junk to Sam's and we'll take care of it for you.

Best Buy wants your e-junk.

Sorry for the posting delay, folks. I've been on vacation - just got back from a driving tour of New England.

Getting ready for our June 21 e-waste drive at Sam's, it was nice to hear that Best Buy is now taking certain e-waste items at its locations. It looks like printer cartridges and cell phones are a go, and appliances they'll even pick up for you, but other things are touch-and-go depending on where you're at. Around here, it looks like the closest you can get is Ann Arbor.

Some items you can upgrade and trade-in for Best Buy gift cards. Not bad.

Had an experience with Best Buy recycling? Let us know in the comments. And look for more info on our summer e-waste drive, coming soon!

Links of the week.

• Reuse disposable items [from Lifehacker.com]
• Another list of ways to reuse stuff [from Tipnut.com]
• Backlash against green marketing [fromSeth Godin's blog]

That last one is interesting, because I noticed the big brew-haha that went on during the week of Earth Day. Can we really be "green" by buying (and throwing away) more stuff? Probably not.

Sign up for our e-mail list

So, we're Recycling Jackson, and every quarter we send out paper newsletters through the mail. We also print new brochures every year or so.

There's a bit of irony there. And we'd like to help end that.

That's why we're developing an e-mail list so that, if you're interested in receiving our newest newsletter, brochure, or update on e-waste drives, you can get it without any harm done to the environment.

Duh, right?

If you're interested, please send us an e-mail to: recyclingjackson [at] yahoo [.] com

We're not going to spam you, or send you stuff every week (maybe not even every month), but we would like to develop a list of hardcore supporters who are interested in hearing the latest and greatest from Recycling Jackson.

Thanks, and hope to see your e-mails soon!