Recycling Advocates: More People Looking For Alternatives To Landfills
(CBS) -- It appears a lot of people are just itching to clean out their homes and get rid of items they no longer want, and are recycling instead of having garbage pile up in landfills.
WBBM Newsradio's Bernie Tafoya reports, at a recent Kane County recycling event, some 200,000 pounds of recyclables were collected; including 140,000 pounds of electronics, 9,500 pounds of books, and 25,000 pounds of documents to be shredded.
"Then we had carpet and padding. We had textiles; which is clothes, shoes, linens, purses, hats, belts, that kind of thing. We did latex paint; which is liquid latex paint that people can bring in, and it gets recycled again as paint, or as a latex plastic product," said Jennifer Jarland, the recycling and resource conservation program coordinator for Kane County.
She said the haul also included 1,000 fluorescent bulbs, and dozens of bicycles and mobility devices – including wheelchairs, crutches, walkers, and scooters.
Jarland suggested people look for recycling events in their own community if they have anything they want to get rid of that isn't biodegradable trash.