Long lines formed June 6 at Harvest Ridge as residents dropped off tires, electronics, paint and batteries for proper recycling
The line of people taking advantage of the Holmes County Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day June 6 was long, with the line stretching out to state Route 39.Dave Mast
The line of people taking advantage of the Holmes County Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day Saturday, June 6 was long, with the line stretching out to state Route 39. If this tells a story, it is this: People of Holmes County are concerned about recycling properly.
The annual event took place at the Holmes County Fairgrounds at Harvest Ridge, and even before it officially opened at 8 a.m., people were lining up ready to do the right thing.
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“This is nuts,” said Kevin Miller, Holmes County Solid Waste supervisor. “Actually, it’s pretty awesome. We had people lining up here at 7 o’clock.”
Miller said Holmes County is fortunate to have funds dedicated specifically for this type of event because he said he shutters to think what happens to these hazardous items that aren’t disposed of properly.
“This is legitimate stuff people are bringing in that needs disposed of carefully,” Miller said. “What would people do with it otherwise? I’m glad we are providing this opportunity. It’s well worthwhile because we need to take every opportunity to take care of our environment. It’s the only one we’ve got.”
Everything from old television sets to toilets, computers and more found its way into the collection bins during the Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day.Dave Mast
At the front of the line, Susan Schie, Holmes County commissioner clerk, was taking names and money for those dropping off tires. People waited patiently to rid themselves of unwanted products.
Miller said it may be time to create a second day in a different location to offer even better services and entice more people to bring in hazardous recycling.
Mike Thurmond of Environmental Enterprises Inc. said the company has been connecting with Holmes County on this annual project for many years, and the company itself is a half-century old, so little comes in that they haven’t seen before.
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The crew has been performing events like this not only in Ohio, but also as far away as Buffalo, New York and Mississippi.
He said most of the material dropped off during the day will be recycled; however, they do go one step further with salvageable paint that gets turned in, donating that to Matthew 25 Ministries, a humanitarian and disaster organization in Blue Ash, Ohio, which puts the paint to good use.
“We’ve got a lot of experience here today, and we all understand the value of events like this,” Thurmond said. “Much of this stuff would end up in landfills, woods or in creeks somewhere, so it’s always a blessing to be able to do the work on something that is good for the environment.”
Based on the massive line of vehicles waiting to drop off unwanted materials including tires, electronics, batteries, aerosol products, paint and more, it was obvious the community of Holmes County agreed with Thurmond’s assessment of taking care of the environment.
“We are very good at what we do, and what we do is important,” Thurmond said.
At one station on the grounds at Harvest Ridge, EEI had its employees separated into several specialized areas including lithium batteries, household batteries, oil, paint and flammables.
At another station in the line, workers were busy disposing of major electronics, with plenty of televisions, old computers and more being piled into large containers.
Also joining in the effort was a crew from Millersburg Tire Service, which was busy collecting a huge number of old tires.
Millersburg Tire Service was a huge asset to the collection process, accepting old tires from dozens of visitors.Dave Mast
MTS owner Brad Schmucker said they were honored to be part of something meaningful, and the tires brought in will be repurposed and recycled.
“We appreciate the business Holmes County has given us, and we feel it’s the right thing to give back by doing this,” Schmucker said. “I’d hate to see a bunch of these tires thrown into the Killbuck Creek or in the woods somewhere.”
He said they have collected more than 300 tires annually from this event since they started it and were well on their way to hitting that number and perhaps more this year.
He said MTS will take the tires to one of their tire recycling partners in Akron, Winesburg and Ontario, Ohio.
Overall, Miller said this day couldn’t have gone much better, and the big turnout was exactly what he had hoped would take place when he put the event together earlier this year.
He said he was grateful to the many people who took time to do the right thing.
