A big thanks to all the volunteers and others who helped out at another successful DropOff & SwapOff Day on Saturday, May 9. This was our 22nd event! Traffic was down a bit from the record we set last year, but a very respectable total of 889 paying vehicles came through the DropOff (the fifth largest ever). As usual, we have no way to count how many people came through the SwapOff area, but we know it was busy!
All in all, everything went remarkably well. After an uncertain start under threatening skies, it turned out to be a beautiful day. The new traffic and unloading pattern at the SwapOff seemed to improve the flow (and I'm sure we'll be tweaking it some more). Bill Turville and friends were back to create another delightful sculpture out of colorful pieces of unwanted waste. WIQH, the CCHS student radio station, again broadcast live from the event.
Kudos to everyone for your ongoing support and participation in this unique event. There were well over 100 volunteers helping out at the DropOff and SwapOff. Without you, this event would never be possible.
Here is a summary of the items collected at DropOff:
21 bags of sneakers for Nike
19 bags of sneakers for Good Will
35 Mattresses
Five 30 yd roll-off containers of scrap metal
One 30 yd roll-off container of upholstered furniture
3,800 lbs of books
1/2 a 30 yd roll-off container of carpet
182 bags of Styrofoam
1&1/2 truck loads of household goods
80 bikes
4 containers of rags
7 bags of towels
Four 55 gallon bags of plastic flower pots
Numerous boxes of paper were shredded during the course of the event
Fifty-one 55 gallon bags of plastic bags
1/2 truck load of children's items
3/4 of a 53' truck load of electronics
6 refrigerators
21 dehumidifiers
39 air conditioners
27 microwaves
40 propane tanks
13 helium tanks
6 fire extinguishers
1 box of crayons
49 ink jet printer cartridges
13 laser jet printer cartridges
50 cell phones
1/3 five gal bucket of ballasts
Two 5 gal buckets of rechargeable batteries
1&1/2 5 gal buckets of lead acid batteries
Three boxes of compact & small fluorescent bulbs
Three containers of 4' fluorescent bulbs
One box of 8' fluorescent bulbs
One 5 gal bucket of mercury thermostats & thermometers
1/4 bucket of assorted batteries
85 lbs. of CD's
84 lbs. of cassettes
66 lbs of 3.5 floppy disks
149 lbs. of VHS tapes
We also collected four 30-yd rolloffs of wood and construction debris that will be recycled into low level reuse and (unfortunately) five 30-yd rolloffs of oversized waste that will be landfilled.
To review the event, consider our "lessons learned" and begin planning for next October, we have scheduled a wrap-up meeting for Thursday, May 21 at 135 Keyes Road. Please join us if you'd like to share feedback or become more actively involved in this event. Team Leaders are strongly encouraged to attend. SwapOff from 6:30 - 7:30pm, DropOff from 7:30 - 8:30pm. If you cannot attend but have feedback to share, please send it to dropOff@ReUsIt.org.
Thanks again to all of you. Everyone did a wonderful job. The next DropOff and SwapOff will be October 17th. Put it on your calendar now!
Fred Serr
DropOff Volunteer Coordinator
Nancy Kerr
SwapOff Volunteer Coordinators
Rod Robison
Environmental Services Program Administrator
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