Local volunteers turn unwanted junk into church donations

Aug. 20—TEUTOPOLIS — People from all over the area lined up at the Teutopolis Village Maintenance Building on North Green Street Saturday to get rid of their unwanted junk.

Fred Honaker of B&H Recycling organized the annual event to help raise funds for the Mattoon Christian Church while simultaneously giving people in the area a rare opportunity to dispose of items that are difficult to recycle.

"We donate all our funds and all the checks we get to Mattoon Christian Church," Honaker said.

Honaker said the church needs all the help it can get after an arsonist set the church on fire in November of 2020, causing severe damage to the building. The congregation has been recovering ever since.

A lot of the money raised comes from the disposal fees people paid for certain items. Recycling items like computers, cameras and cellphone batteries cost $1, while console televisions required a $10 fee.

"We donate a lot of that to Mattoon Christian Church for the food banquet," Honaker said.

Honaker said most items are easy to recycle, but certain materials like glass make some items much more difficult than others to take apart. Therefore, most items with disposal fees contain glass.

"Glass is hard because it cuts you open. We just take them apart and do what we can do," Honaker said

After everything is taken apart, pieces are separated based on the item or material, according to Honaker. Once this is done, everything is sent to various locations to be sold, donated, or sent to a landfill.

"I take the boards to Indianapolis, and then we donate the plastic to people who recycle plastic, and then send the glass to the landfill," Honaker said.

Honaker had the help of some volunteers who were tasked with unloading items from cars and moving them onto larger trucks. Among those volunteers was Hunter Hargis, who described some of the items he came across while unloading cars Saturday, which included televisions, bikes, refrigerators, basic home equipment, outdoor tools and various other electronics like computers.

Honaker said people living in the area have nowhere else to take the unwanted items largely because most of them don't live anywhere near larger cities where this type of service is available.

Honaker said they have been doing the recycling event for the past 20 years and plan to do it again next year.

Nick Taylor can be reached at nick.taylor@effinghamdailynews.com or by phone at 618-510-9226 or 217-347-7151 ext. 300132.