SIDNEY — “Although there were 40 fewer vehicles this year than last year’s record (365 cars and trucks), this year’s Super Saturday Recycling Event was still a tremendous success,” Sidney Mayor Mike Barhorst said. “Through the efforts of our partners and volunteers, we were able to properly dispose of more than 33,000 pounds of material that would have ended up in a landfill.”
A total of 325 vehicles brought more than 16½ tons of no longer needed medications, books, documents to be shredded and electronic materials. The event was held on April 8, 2017, at the Shelby County Fairgrounds.
The event is co-sponsored by the city of Sidney, the Shelby County Commissioners, the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, Minster Bank, the Sidney-Shelby County Health Department, the North Central Ohio Solid Waste District, Shelby County Libraries, the Shelby County Emergency Management Agency, the Shelby County Agricultural Society, the Sidney-Shelby County Chamber of Commerce and Cohen Recycling.
The recycling effort began six years ago, when representatives of Goodwill Easter Seals of the Miami Valley (GESMV) approached Barhorst with the idea. At the time, GESMV recycled electronic devices, that provided full-time employment for more than two dozen workers at their Dayton facility. Because of changes in the market for recyclable materials, GESMV no longer recycles electronics.
This year, Cohen Recycling was brought on board to process electronic waste. More than 6½ tons of no longer needed electronic devices were collected this year to be recycled at Cohen’s Cincinnati processing center.
Five years ago, Minster Bank began providing secure document shredding as part of the Super Saturday event. Since that time, thousands of pounds of documents have been shredded. This year, 8,000 pounds of documents were shredded and recycled through the effort, the equivalent of saving 68 trees. In fact each ton of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4,000 kilowatts of energy, and 7,000 gallons of water.
This is the third year that the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office has participated by collecting pharmaceuticals for safe disposal. This year, the Sheriff’s Office collected 69 pounds of no longer needed medications.
This year was also the third year the Shelby County Libraries participated in the event. Library volunteers collected 3,900 pounds of books this year. The books were separated into three categories: 1) books that could be added to the library’s collection; 2) books that could be sold in the library’s annual book sale; and, 3) books that would be recycled because they had no other value for the library (i.e., sets of encyclopedias).
“The committee members will meet in the next couple of weeks to evaluate this year’s event. We will also determine if we will have the financial resources to undertake the event again next year,” Barhorst said. “Unfortunately, the high cost of recycling electronic items, especially those that have high lead content screens, may make it financially impossible to hold the event again.”
“Certainly the members of the committee would like to thank all of those who assisted with the event this year, as well as those who brought materials to be recycled. We want to again give a special thanks to Lehman Catholic Football Coach Dick Roll, the Cavalier football players who helped with the heavy lifting, and the other student volunteers who assisted,” Barhorst said.
