SHELBY — Residents of Richland County and the surrounding area will have an opportunity to recycle unwanted electronics Saturday.
The Shelby Middle School Eco-Whippets club plans to host an electronics recycling drive from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Shelby Board of Education parking lot, 109 W. Smiley Ave.
Accepted items include computers, mobile devices, TVs, cabling and batteries, among others.
Mindy Rowlands, Eco-Whippets advisor and Shelby Middle School sixth grade teacher, said the club began hosting an electronics drive six years ago.
“It doesn’t earn us any money or benefit us in any way — other than the fact that the children understand that they’re keeping that (electronics) out of the landfill,” she said.
Rowlands added items are collected by Eco-Whippets members, loaded into a truck and taken to a local recycling center.
“They (recycling center) tell us a couple weeks later how many pounds (of electronics) we’ve actually recycled,” she said. “Every year we’ve averaged between 8,000 and 9,000 pounds of recycled electronics that don’t go into the landfill.”
Electronic items will be collected at no cost. A small fee will be charged for TVs — ranging between $25 to $45 depending on its size.
“That (TVs) is the one thing we have to charge for due to the maintenance that needs to be done on them prior to recycling,” Rowlands explained.
Partnering with Richland County Solid Waste Authority
The Richland County Solid Waste Authority will also have a truck on-site Saturday at 109 W. Smiley Ave. to assist Eco-Whippets members.
Rowlands said the Solid Waste Authority will be collecting any items containing freon, including refrigerators and air conditioners, among others.
“This is the one time a year that they bring their truck over and they will take your items with freon in them for free,” she said.
“We normally wouldn’t be able to take it (freon items) — but Richland County Solid Waste Authority comes in and teams up with us on that.”
Rowlands says Eco-Whippets ‘do a great job’
Shelby Middle School’s Eco-Whippets club currently has 26 members from students between sixth and eighth grade.
Rowlands, who launched the group seven years ago, said the club provides time for students to volunteer and help out their community.
“(Students) can kind of be an example for what recycling looks like and what looking after your Earth looks like,” she added. “They get pretty enthusiastic about it. They really like it.”
This year’s group has been learning about what a carbon footprint is and how it impacts the Earth. A trip to Oberlin College gave students a chance to learn about alternative energy.
Eco-Whippets meet twice a month and club members perform weekly jobs throughout the school year — which includes handling all recycling for the pre-kindergarten through eighth grade building.
“They empty bins, take things out to the dock, report problems to me and talk about issues,” Rowlands said. “We even have officers that have particular jobs (such as) community outreach and things like that.”
The Eco-Whippets advisor commended students’ efforts and hard work.
“Being a role model for those other students and doing the right thing isn’t always that cool in middle school,” she said. “I get that. I think it kind of develops a more independent individual who stands for what they believe in.”