Easier being green

New recycling center has big ideas

This April is the 45th time we have celebrated Earth Day. While it pales in comparison to major holidays (see: Holy Days), it keeps pace nicely with lesser holidays like Flag Day and that day in February where the groundhog predicts the weather.

In Tulsa, this April, many green organizations are planning activities to celebrate our Earth. Some of my favorites include the lunch hour festival on April 16 downtown at 4th and Main, and Earth Day with the Drillers the next night. The first one offers live music and the second one has free giveaways. The Drillers even wear green jerseys.

My employer, the Metropolitan Environmental Trust, has jumped in this year by opening a new recycling center in downtown Tulsa. The new drop-off depot is on the southeast corner of 11th and Cincinnati. We have operated these types of centers for more than 20 years (this is our 12th center in the Tulsa metro area), but this center is trying some new ideas. For one, we are going to try to attract new recyclers from small businesses, TCC students, and all the apartments residents nearby.

We have a new large dumpster just for bagged, shredded paper. I hope small businesses will take advantage. We have a large, 40-foot shipping container converted into a building to collect electronic waste. We now will accept computers, printers, keyboards, VCRs, DVRs, broken laptops or phones from the public. Electronic waste is the next frontier for us in recycling. Nothing in our history has ever cost so much and become worth so little, so fast, as a computer. People seem to have a lot of them in their lives.

We will accept all batteries, including rechargeable, auto, and flashlight types. Our centers will also collect plastic bags (don’t put them in your curbside blue bins). We will accept used cooking oil and used motor oil, even collect eyeglasses that are recycled by the local Lion’s clubs.

Of course, we take all the common recyclables such as glass bottles, soda and beer cans, water bottles and milk jugs and soda bottles. We have three other large containers where our workers will sort out phone books, newspaper, magazines and junk mail.

Speaking of our workers, we employ more than 100 workers with disabilities to run our network of centers. The center is planned to be accessible 24 hours a day and will have staff available part-time seven days a week.

This is a new challenge. We have limited funds, and we have invested a lot to get this center going. Help us spread the word and help us reach new recyclers. Being downtown is exciting for us and we hope it will be convenient for Tulsans.

Who knows, with some success, maybe we can raise the awareness of Earth Day to be equal to the annual celebration of the big football game or the day we drink green beer. Come to think of it, some green beer for Earth day wouldn’t be half bad.