A Pennsylvania Resources Council event slated for this weekend in Elizabeth offers a chance to get rid of items that traditional curbside recycling or trash collection won’t take off your hands.
The "Hard To Recycle" collection event will accept household devices and appliances, including microwaves, DVD players, printers, televisions, computer monitors, window air conditioners and dehumidifiers, along with other difficult to recycle items, like car and truck tires.
The collection runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at Elizabeth Forward Middle School. Participants must register online or by calling 412-488-7490.
According to Joshua Schuneman, the Pennsylvania Resource Council’s collection events manager, many hard-to-recycle items can be particularly damaging to the environment when disposed of incorrectly.
“A lot of those materials, if left in a landfill or littered over a hillside or into a ravine, will pollute the air and the water and the soil that they wind up in,” he said. “Car tires, for example, can be breeding grounds for mosquitoes, which can lead to all kinds of diseases. And so, making sure that those don't wind up in our yards or in our greenways or in our parks is a great way for us to take charge and take responsibility for that.”
The PRC has hosted hard-to-recycle collections events since 2002 and partners with other organizations that process or recycle the items it collects. Some items can be broken down, others can be repaired or reused, Schuneman said.
“Car tires, for example, can be cut up and used for construction backing in hillside growth and repair, or turned into mulch, or even responsibly turned into energy,” he explained.
Last year, the organization collected 483,629 pounds of e-waste and hard-to-recycle materials from 5,269 households.
Bringing items into a specialized recycling event can help cut down on what Schuneman refers to as “wish-cycling,” or tossing something unrecyclable into a recycling bin and hoping or wishing that it will be recycled.
“A lot of times, you know, if you think you're recycling something responsibly and you put it in your blue bin, in your green bin, and it goes to the processing facility, it may just wind up in a landfill,” Schuneman said.
On its website, the City of Pittsburgh warns against wishful recycling, and notes that contaminants making it into the recycling stream can degrade materials, boost costs, and even harm the recycling facility or employees.
At Saturday’s event, participants will pay a $5 per car fee that covers the disposal of many home appliances. Some specific larger items, like televisions or tires, are charged per item. The fees go back to help pay for the cost of processing or recycling the items, Schuneman said.
Future Hard to Recycle collections are scheduled for Sept. 28 at Settlers Cabin Park and Oct. 5 at Next Tier Connect at Pittsburgh East in Monroeville.
