SOUTH WAVERLY — Sayre Redskin Club President Erin Wayman recently appeared before the South Waverly Borough Council as she looked to rally support for the return of the electronic waste recycling day typically held at the Sayre High School.
Wayman explained that the free event has been on a hiatus over the last couple of years because of the pandemic, but also because of new regulations forcing the Redskin Club to pay for the services of a responsible recycler. In years past, that recycler would offer its services for free, and the Redskin Club would use the event as a fundraiser.
She added that the Redskin Club remains committed to bringing the event, which is open to everyone, back to the community.
“It’s a valuable, needed event for the community,” she noted. “We’re really hoping to bring it back and give people the opportunity to get rid of the electronic waste that they don’t need anymore.”
“On average, we pull in about 50,000 pounds of electronic waste during this event” she said. “So if we hit that number again this year, we’ll be looking at roughly a $30,000 goal to make this event happen.”
The electronic waste recycling event can even accept unused televisions, which Wayman said are notoriously difficult to dispose of and recycle responsibly.
Part of raising the funds needed for the event involved visiting the Valley municipalities, such as South Waverly Borough, for financial support, said Wayman. The idea would be for municipalities to possibly contribute a financial percentage of the poundage of electronics waste that would be raised from the event.
The South Waverly Borough Council was receptive to the proposal, but expressed a desire to wait to see which other municipalities would be interested so they would have a better idea of the commitment needed.
“We would love to try to help offset this cost, but it’s just simply a budget issue,” said council member Chris Wood. “Plus, we’re a smaller municipality than say Sayre or Athens, so theoretically there would be more residents bringing in more waste than South Waverly residents.”
Wayman said the event would likely be held at the Brock Street entrance of the Sayre High School, but no official date has been decided yet as the Redskin Club works to rally support behind the project.
“We want to do this, but we need help to pull this off, so asking for the support of local municipalities to contribute towards a percentage of the recycling is part of that,” she said.
Wayman added that individuals or businesses interested in supporting the event can reach the Sayre Redskin Club on Facebook or via email at redskinsclub@gmail.com.
