Target: Electronics, Styrofoam & confidential documents
COVINGTON, Ky. – Covington’s annual specialty recycling event last year attracted 398 drivers who dropped off 42,982 pounds of broken electronics and confidential papers for shredding.
Organizers say this year’s event on Saturday morning will be bigger and better.
How?
- By making it even quicker and easier for drivers to “get in and get out.”
- By expanding the acceptable materials list to include Styrofoam and other foam-packing materials.
- By allowing people to drop off problematic CRT televisions (i.e. old-school, bulky cathode-ray tube non-flat screen models) and computer monitors, although a $10 fee will be charged for the first time for those two costly-to-get-rid-of items.
“Two things about this event are particularly exciting,” said Stephanie Bacher, the City’s Solid Waste and Recycling Supervisor, “One, we’re getting to be a well-oiled machine, so people rarely have to wait. And two, the sheer volume of what Covington residents help us keep out of landfills.”
The event will run from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Holmes High School. Cars should enter the campus from the main entrance on Madison Avenue in-between 25th Street and Levassor Place (this is different from previous years). You have to be a Covington resident.
This is the sixth year for the event, which is organized by the Keep Covington Beautiful organization in partnership with the City.
The event helps keep toxic chemicals out of the ground and the water table, since discarded electronics equipment eventually leaks toxic chemicals like lead, cadmium, and mercury. It also protects Covington residents from identity theft, since throwing confidential documents into curbside recycling could leave personal information at risk.
Shred It, a company that is certified by the National Association of Information Destruction, will be on-site to shred confidential documents and recycle them into new paper. Likewise, Cobalt, a company certified by the Recycling Industry Operating Standard, will disassemble the electronics. The polystyrene foam will be brought to Eco Development, where it will be condensed and made into new usable products.
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