In honor of the 44th anniversary of Earth Day on Tuesday April 22nd, you may ask yourself what can I do to help the environment both locally and globally. Fortunately the answer to the question of locally exists right here in your community. Recycling is one of the easiest and most effective environmental actions you can take, and it has an impact both at home and across the globe.
Recycling is also one of the first actions that many environmentally-conscious people take. It is simple, everyone can do it and the infrastructure exists in Sedona so it is convenient and comprehensive. Hopefully you are already practicing the first two Rs reducing your consumption, reusing whenever possible and then when that is done recycling everything else.
Supporting recycling doesn’t just mean putting your bottles in the right bin. There are many other ways you can support local recycling and help to continue to see our excellent program flourish and grow.
The first way to show your support is to become a member of Sedona Recycles. Many people are unaware that Sedona Recycles is a nonprofit organization with an educational mission. One of the best kept secrets in town is that we have members many of whom have supported us since we opened the CommunityRecyclingCenter on Shelby Drive in 1996. These members have been believers in the important work we do everyday and our ever expanding programs. They know that the services we provide are important to our community and are done using best practices. They are also aware that their contributions make these costly programs possible. So what is a membership at Sedona Recycles all about? There are three membership levels: Individual which is $25 a year, family membership which is $50 a year and business membership at $100 a year. All of these membership levels include free electronics recycling for the year which is available 7 days a week during business hours. We invite everyone to become a member of Sedona Recycles and show your support.
There is a common misconception that recycling is a very profitable endeavor and this couldn’t be further from the truth especially when you are providing the types of services that Sedona Recycles offers the public. We not only accept the standard materials cardboard, paper, plastics and cans we also take glass which many other recyclers do not accept. On top of the aforementioned materials we also take batteries, electronics, ink and toner cartridges, Styrofoam, chip bags, candy wrappers, aluminum foil, bubble wrap, packing peanuts, corks, clothes, shoes, small household items and Britta filters. We offer free reuse options for anyone interested which includes: packing materials, moving boxes, nursery pots, blue bottles and egg cartons. Donations are always appreciated when picking up these materials. We cannot depend on material sales to fund these special collections and that is where you come in.
In keeping with our educational mission we provided presentations and tours to over 1,300 students in 2013 and we kept 3,700 tons of recyclable materials out of the landfill. We received accommodations for supplying the highest quality materials for remanufacturing from our buyers who appreciate and applaud our conscientious attention to detail when it comes to collection, sorting and processing recyclable materials. As our mission says we will provide with full community support opportunities to reduce, reuse and recycle and we take that mission very seriously and we always strive to provide responsible resource recovery with a proven 98% recovery rate.
Here are some statistics of what it takes to do what we do on a daily basis.
- $100 purchases recycling collection bins for twelve classrooms at local schools.
- $300 funds operation of our sorting line for one day. All plastics and cans are hand-sorted by Sedona Recycles staff members and developmentally disabled adults from Rainbow Acres. Our crew from Rainbow Acres has been with us for the last 13 years. These jobs have provided meaning and purpose for the ranchers and we know we couldn’t do it without them.
- $750 pays to service our 19 satellite drop-off recycling sites for one day.
- $950 buys one recycling dumpster for our satellite drop-off sites.
- $1,500 covers the cost of operating the Sedona Recycles facility for one day.
We need your help to steadfastly maintain our mission, so please consider supporting our nonprofit recycling organization this Earth Day. We will be holding a spare change event on April 22nd at the center and at Credit Union West in Cottonwood. This is an event where you recycle your loose change in an effort to support our programs. Credit Union West will match your donation dollar for dollar up to $500. So empty your pockets and support a nonprofit that matters in your community and please consider becoming a member today to continue your support all year long and into the future.
For more information about our programs and how you can participate visit www.sedonarecycles.org or come into the facility and take a tour and see what happens behind the scenes. We are your local community nonprofit recycling center and we are always here to help.