Recycling during and at the Event: We'll recycle ours; you recycle yours!

I've already told you that The Hudson Valley 40th Anniversary Earth Day Celebration is going to be a Zero Landfill event. Recycling is a big part of making sure that happens. The Fairgrounds routinely recycles its single-use bottles and cans (look for the Cleartainer bins all over the venue...). We also recycle cardboard, office papers, metal, and cooking oil, as well as burned-out fluorescent tubes and compact fluorescent lamps.

And, at the Earth Day Celebration, we'll also be piloting the recycling of food waste.

But what about you? Yes, you! What are YOU going to recycle at the Hudson Valley 40th Anniversary Earth Day Celebration? Well, let me tell you what you can recycle (besides bottles and cans you might bring or buy during your day[s] with us...you could come to both days, you know...)

For starters, you can bring all your electronic devices that you no longer use, and recycle them with Advanced Recovery, Inc. right out there in our main parking lot! Yup. For $10 per CARLOAD, you can get rid of it. Safely. Securely. Cheaply. And don't be shy about bringing everything you could possibly stuff into your car or minivan or 4x4. You should see what folks brought in last year when we held our two e-waste turn-in days!

Take the Earth Day Celebration Challenge: Can you help us beat last year's haul? In 2009, we collected over 70 TONS of e-waste in just two weekends. Bring us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses of electronics from your basement or garage.

Computers, monitors, keyboards, wiring, mice (mouses?), cell phones, stereos, radios, DVD and tape players, printers, scanners. You name it: If it's electronic (NOT electric, as in, NO you may not bring us your old stoves, refrigerators, microwaves, air conditioners, etc.), Advanced Recovery will take it. You won't even need to get out of your car. Just follow the signs, roll on up, hand over your ten-spot, and AR's crew of professionals will relieve you of your equipment, 99%+ of which will be refurbished and recycled at the company's NYS- and EPA-approved facilities in Port Jervis or in Newark, NJ. None of the material recycled/reclaimed is shipped out of country.

That's the electronics part of recyclorama extravaganza. You know all those old boxes of checks, business documents, term papers, personal mail that have piled up at home? Bring in up to three boxes (the size of book storage boxes...) full of those documents, and Hudson Baylor Corporation (one of our major Earth Day Celebration sponsors, btw...) will shred them in one of its secure data shredding trucks. Nobody will ever be able to see what you wrote in those old journals, love letters, checkbooks, etc. again. Oh. They'll do that for free (just so you know).

We haven't battened it all down just yet, but we're also hoping to provide you with the opportunity to turn in compact fluorescents and your old medications.

Did you know that flushing pills or liquid meds down the drain or putting them into your trash for landfilling is absolutely terrible for the environment? Google "pharmaceuticals in the environment" and you'll come up with 7,760,000 hits that will show you how there are now meds in our water supplies, lakes and streams, and what they may be doing to wildlife, you and me.

I'll let you know in a future post about whether we'll be able to offer you the option of bringing in those bulbs and meds and mercury-containing devices (such as old thermometers, thermostats etc...).

Oh. and once you've unloaded your car of all that old stuff -- er, please, not your kids ;-) , we cordially invite you to drive over to the parking area, and mosey on up to the rest of our Celebration. You'll be glad you did!