On a day dedicated to recycling electronic items such as old computers and VCR’s, many Jefferson County residents chose to recycle more than that, bringing newspapers, aluminum cans and even old furniture to the Pine Bluff Hazardous Waste Recycling Center across from Taylor Memorial Field.
“When we had our first e-waste recycling event in August, 2008, we collected enough stuff to fill a 53-foot trailer,” said David Trulock, manager of the center. “Since then, our collections have declined some because we take things from households every day.”
In addition, Trulock said he is frequently called by businesses who want to dispose of old electronic items.
Old or broken electronic items reflect only a small part of what is collected at the recycling center.
“We actually started as a Street Department program to collect hazardous household waste products like paint, cleaning solutions and the like,” Trulock said. “It was part of a Storm Water Abatement program, offering an alternative to dumping those kinds of items in the landfill or pouring them down a drain where they would go directly into the creeks.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
At about the same time, the e-waste collection program began on a small scale, then grew to a semiannual event, with the items collected being shipped to a company that will dismantle them.
Shortly after that, Gloria Sumner, director of the Pine Bluff/Jefferson County Clean and Beautiful Commission asked Trulock if he would consider adding plastic items such as bottles and sacks to his the list of things the city would collect.
“She said she had somebody that would pick up the stuff,” Trulock said.
The Clean and Beautiful Commission’s monthly Recycle Saturdays moved from the parking lot of the civic center complex to the city’s recycling facility, and Trulock said that resulted in bins for aluminum cans, cardboard, newspapers, and other items.
“What was Recycle Saturday became recycle everyday,” Trulock said. “We’re a collection center only, and don’t sell anything we collect.”
Waste Management has provided two dumpsters at the collection center for household use, and Trulock said those two are emptied twice a week.
“Since we’re started, we’re seeing a lot more people who are bringing things in to be recycled,” Trulock said, “or just want to dispose of things like old furniture they don’t need the proper way, instead of just dumping it on the street.”