Northeast News
November 19, 2014

KANSAS CITY, Missouri – Are old televisions, mattresses, bicycles and other items taking up space in your house or garage?

The Kansas City, Mo., Public Works Department’s Solid Waste Division will celebrate America Recycles Day with a collection event from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 22, at 1320 Truman Road. Electronics, clothing, construction salvage, glass, batteries, bicycles and mattresses will be among the materials collected. The event allows Kansas Citians to dispose of recyclable items free of charge.

In a press release, Marleen Leonce, recycling program manager, said the average Kansas City resident generates about five pounds of trash per day, but only recycles a pound and a half of waste per week.

“More than ninety percent of residential waste generated, can be recycled, reused or repurposed,” Leonce said. “We’re doing well as a city, but we can do much better.”

The event will include a number of community partners that specialize in collecting hard-to-recycle materials:

• Surplus Exchange: cell phones, printers, scanners, modems, CD drives, cables, keyboards, mice, televisions, VCRs, DVD players, camcorders, cameras, game players and joysticks, telephones, pagers, answering machines, typewriters, calculators, adding machines, fax machines, copiers. Monitors will be recycled at a cost of $10 per item; all other items will be recycled free of charge.

• The Salvation Army: Clothing, accessories, books, footwear, toys, linens, house wares, small appliances (all in good working condition).

• Habitat for Humanity Kansas City: Construction salvage, tools, building materials

• Ripple Glass: All glass food and beverage containers of any color (including mason jars and glass drinking vessels such as wine glasses).

• City of Kansas City, Missouri: Waste tires, plastic bags; household batteries

• RevolveKC: Bicycles

• Pink Hill Construction & Demolition Landfill: roofing shingles, rubble, bricks, concrete

• Avenue of Life: Mattresses

• ProShred: Off-site document shredding only (documents must be in bags or boxes); white Styrofoam (block or lose, preferably in bags).

The Kansas City Public Schools/Mid America Regional Council Solid Waste Management District will also participate and provide information on recycling and reducing household waste. Kansas Citians recycled more than 68 million pounds of waste last year, keeping forty percent of household trash out of landfills. For more information about solid waste collection services, visit http://www.kcmo.org/trash or call the 311 Action Center at 311 or 816-513-1313.