HUBBELL — Old computers, cathode-ray tube TVs and cardboard that might have gone straight to the landfill were diverted to recycling Friday as part of Koppers’ e-waste recycling collection at its plant Friday.
This is the first time the plant has held a recycling drive to celebrate Earth Day, said Cody Woodbury, a process engineer at Koppers who helped coordinate the event, In past years, plant employees have planted trees and created a community garden.
“We came together as a group here and decided e-recycling was what we wanted to do, and we expanded it to single-stream as well,” he said. “It just blew up.”
The single-steam recycling will go to Marquette, while the e-waste will be taken to a certified recycler in Peoria, Illinois.
As of about 5 p.m. Friday, they’d accumulated about half a large trailer’s worth of e-waste, Woodbury said.
“We’ve gotten a lot of CRT TVs, which is really awesome,” he said. “They last for a long time.”
Also helping with the event was Steve Noble, electronics coordinator for the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy. EGLE supports a statewide take-back program. Last year, it accounted for more than 12 million pounds of material being recycled.
“It’s great to have Koppers step up and do this for the community,” he said.
Manufacturers help support the cost of the program, which would otherwise be cost-prohibitive,
Woodbury said Koppers hopes to make it an annual event.
“There’s a lot of community interaction,” he said. “A lot of people are really thankful for what’s going on.”
EGLE is working to improve access to recycling in underserved areas of the state, including the Upper Peninsula, Noble said. Another recycling event is being planned for Calumet in the fall. Costs would be subsidized through a grant program, Noble said.
Long-term, EGLE wants to create a permanent drop-off site in the area. It has talked with the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, though EGLE also hopes to have something closer to the Houghton-Hancock area, Noble said.
“We’re open to anybody who wants to step up and work with us to take the material,” he said.
