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Wednesday, September 17, 2008

E*Waste Erased

September has been a busy month for The S.A.V.E. Foundation. After baling and recycling many dumpsters full of plastics, S.A.V.E. headed off to Erase your E*Waste this past weekend. The annual event ran Friday, September 12th from 3-7pm and again Saturday morning, September 13th from 8am-1pm in the Kmart parking lot. The S.A.V.E. Foundation partnered with Montana Department of Environmental Quality, Pacific Steel and Recycling, Lewis and Clark City-County Health Department, Lewis and Clark Water Quality Protection District, Lewis and Clark Landfill, The City of Helena Transfer Station, and City-County Sanitation to make this event possible.
This event drew nearly 400 cars plus several businesses that pre-registered from surrounding areas including a Uhaul that showed up with more than 200 electronic waste items to recycle. Some items are free to recycle such as computer towers and laptops, but many were recycled with a fee to pay for labor to disassemble the components properly. Recycling electronics keeps toxic materials out of landfills, which reduces the potential of substances such as lead and mercury from leaching into our land and water.
Electronics recycling has been an increasingly important issue with technology changing daily, and the consequential desire to obtain the latest and greatest. Television sets were one of the most common recycled items at this event because of the signal change coming up later this year. Unfortunately, electronics recycling may not be affordable to everyone as television sets are one of the most costly items to recycle. This leads to incorrect disposal of these materials.
The S.A.V.E. Foundation will be working on policies to make electronics recycling more practical this upcoming session, but also work to ban these materials from landfills. Many states already have regulations on electronic waste including fines for tossing electronics into the garbage.


Coming up next, The S.A.V.E. Foundation will be working with the Growing Friends of Helena to recycle at Trash for Trees September 27th at Northgate Plaza from 9am-4pm. This event will collect newspapers, glass, corrugated cardboard, steel and aluminum cans, office paper, and some rechargeable batteries (from laptops or power tools). This will also be another opportunity to recycle your type 1 and type 2 plastics! Recycle to raise money for planting trees and support expanded recycling! Volunteers are need for this event. To sign up visit savemobile.org or dial 449.6008. Volunteering makes expanded recycling possible in your community!


Pictured below: Volunteers help to make this event possible. Thanks to all those who came out to help!

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Thursday, September 11, 2008

Plastics Drive - September 2008

The S.A.V.E. Foundation has just wrapped up another successful plastics drive, recycling more plastics than ever before. We collected type 1 and 2 plastics including soda and water bottles, milk jugs, and laundry detergent containers. The plastics drive keeps thousands of pounds of plastic out of our landfills, which saves fossil fuels, and money. Collected items were baled at Pacific Steel and Recycling here in Helena, and will be sent to Missoula for processing. Check back, numbers will be posted soon! Thank you to everyone who participated and helped us out by rinsing out their bottles, removing lids, and sorting out the plastic by type. Quality control is essential in order to recycle these items efficiently and economically. This event would not be possible without our staff of volunteers, a big thank you for all your help! The S.A.V.E. Foundation would also like to thank the sponsors for this event; the City of Helena, City County Sanitation, Pacific Steel and Recycling, and General Services of the State of Montana.