'We had no idea Rapids was waiting 20 years for this': Electronics recycling event more than triples expectations
WISCONSIN RAPIDS – When Love INC hosted a junk electronics drop-off event Aug. 19, organizers did not expect the overwhelming number of people who waited in line for hours, lined up for nearly a mile along Eighth Street, to drop off electronics they had been holding on to for decades.
Love INC – which stands for Love in the Name of Christ – partnered with Elite Energy Distribution, a Brookfield-based recycling service supplier, and collected electronics at no cost in the Immanuel Lutheran Church parking lot. People could drop off TVs, cellphones, microwaves, power tools, batteries, desktop printers, scanners, stereos, telephones, fax machines, DVD players, copiers, computers, monitors, laptops, circuit boards, video game systems and more.
Pastor Eric Hambrock, Love INC’s executive director and former Elite Energy Distribution employee, said as organizers planned for the event, they looked at similar events Elite Energy Distribution held in the past. They also took into consideration event locations that didn’t have certified electronic recycling centers nearby. They looked at a similar event in Green Lake – about 70 miles southeast from Wisconsin Rapids – and estimated they would collect about five truckloads of donations.
Wisconsin Rapids collected more than three times that amount in three hours.
How much was collected?
Hambrock said they needed to close the event an hour early due to the volume of donations. Even so, crews filled 12 trucks with electronics. Hambrock said crews stacked trucks fuller than usual, measuring about 16 to 18 typical truckloads.
David Strange, owner of Elite Energy Distribution, told a Daily Tribune photojournalist he estimated the event collected about 200,000 pounds of materials.
“We had no idea Rapids was waiting 20 years for this,” Hambrock said.
People were dropping off TVs and other electronics that were 20 years old or older, he said.
How long did crews work to clear out donations?
At least 28 volunteers continued working through Wednesday afternoon following the Saturday event.
Eighteen Love INC volunteers joined 10 Elite Energy Distribution employees to run and clean up after the event. Hambrock said it’s hard to tell how many people helped, as other community members stopped by to offer their assistance, as well.
Crews spent the rest of that Saturday and Sunday clearing out the parking lot. Because of the excessive heat that Monday, they returned later in the afternoon to continue working through Wednesday afternoon.
Because of the high volume of donations, collection and clean up took more time and work than expected, which added unexpected costs. Hambrock said Elite Energy Distribution ended up covering the additional labor, housing and food costs to finish clearing out the donations as quickly as possible.
How does this work as a fundraiser?
Elite Energy Distribution meets a set of environmental standards set by the Department of Natural Resources. It is R2 certified, which means it has gone through an independently audited process to be certified as an electronics recycler.
Items that are donated are broken down and sorted by specific material. Elite Energy Distribution works with various partners that take specific materials like copper, metal, electronic boards and batteries, selling those materials to the appropriate companies at market prices based on weight. Those partners pay Elite Energy Distribution, who will then share the profits from the materials collected at the event with Love INC.
Events like the one Love INC hosted are profitable because of the guaranteed volume of scrap collected, Hambrock said.
‘The community should be proud of themselves’
Hambrock said he greatly appreciated the attitude and help of local responders, especially the Wisconsin Rapids Police Department, Wood County Sheriff’s Department and local fire departments, who helped control traffic during the drop-off event.
He also shared appreciation for Immanuel Lutheran Church and its Pastor Tim Ritter for allowing the group to use the church’s parking lot and for longer than planned.
While he understands frustrations and anger of some community members who were turned away when Love INC closed the event an hour early, Hambrock said there were also acts of neighborly love.
Hambrock said he witnessed “good public benevolence,” watching people waiting to drop off items in line who saw other people struggling with their items and jumped out to help them.
He said watching so many people dropping off such a high volume of electronics showed that residents were hanging onto their old items and wanting to recycle them rather than leave them in a landfill.
“People should be proud to be part of the Wisconsin Rapids community,” Hambrock said. “The community should be proud of themselves to want to take care of their items responsibly.”
Will there be another recycling event?
Hambrock said hosting the Aug. 19 event uncovered a community need. Love INC would like to host another recycling event, he said, although the group learned a lot while hosting the first one and would definitely organize it differently in the future.
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This article originally appeared on Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune: Wisconsin Rapids electronics recycling event triples expectations
