Berrien County to hold community recycling event Tuesday
The Berrien County Parks Department will host a free community recycling event this Tuesday, April 14.
Parks Department Environmental Property Manager Jaysen Field tells us they’ve been holding these events for more than two decades, giving Berrien County residents a way to dispose of unwanted items the responsible way.
“It‘s served many different people over the years,” Field said. “It started out as something small, just collecting household hazardous waste, and now we’ve grown into this larger event that’s taking so many more items.”
At Tuesday’s event, they’ll take foam and Styrofoam, electronics, household chemicals like fertilizer and oil-based paint, batteries, light bulbs, and personal documents for shredding. All items are free to recycle, expect televisions and monitors, which come fees of $20 and $10, respectively. Field says there aren’t many opportunities to dispose of such a wide array of items.
“Practically all electronics are accepted, all different types. Anything with a cord. It’s just those couple items that cost money. So it’s a great opportunity. If you have an old blender or toaster or something, bring it on out. People have a lot of oil-based paint in their garage. This is a great opportunity to get rid of all that kind of stuff. We do not take latex paint, just oil based paint, but that’s a very popular item for people.”
Field says they’re also now taking bicycles thanks to a partnership with Cycle-Re-Cycle in Benton Harbor. And a lot of people do take the opportunity to attend the recycling events.
“This is probably our most popular event, the one on April 14, this Tuesday. We could expect anywhere up to 800 cars come through this event.”
Field says recycling all of these items is the best way to dispose of them.
“As a member of this community, we’re a beach community, we’re a tourist community. We want to keep our area clean and safe and we don’t want any of the stuff ending up in our beaches or environment, so it’s a great opportunity to get rid of that stuff that way.”
So, what happens to the materials that people drop off?
“Depending on which vendor we’re talking about, our household hazardous waste — we hire a company out of Livonia called ERG. They’ll take it, they’ll neutralize it, they’ll incinerate it, they’ll handle it properly to get rid of it. Electronics, we’re working with Green Earth out of St. Joseph. They’ll repurpose a lot of these, take them apart, hopefully reuse them. Styrofoam we take from Tri-Power. They utilize that plastic elsewhere. And then the used bicycles, they’re hoping to be able to scrap them or repurpose them and give to people who might be in need.”
The recycling event will run from 2 to 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 14 at Lake Michigan College in Benton Harbor. Field says it’ll be drive-thru style, so no one has to get out of their cars. The next county recycling event will be in May in Buchanan.
You can learn more about Berrien County’s recycling events right here.
