Lipscomb Academy collection Friday benefits earth & needy

Janel Shoun-Smith | 

recycle day 2011.1
recycle day 2011.2
recycle day 2011.3
recycle day 2011.4

When you drop off your recyclables at Lipscomb Academy on Friday, Nov. 15, between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m., you are doing more than getting rid of unwanted waste and diverting it from the local landfill (as if that weren’t enough!). You are also helping Nashville’s homeless community, aiding the poor of Haiti and continuing the academy’s highly lauded tradition of environmental stewardship.

For four years the academy has partnered with Lipscomb University to hold community recycling days to collect not only traditional recyclable materials, but electronic and other household waste as well. While the collection itself provided benefits to the community, the academy students then went on to use proceeds from donated cell phones, newspapers, aluminum cans and plastic bottles to benefit nonprofit organizations that work with military veterans, environmental education and residents of impoverished nations.

This year, the collection has been expanded to include items like well-worn garments, potato chip bags, candy wrapper, drink pouches, empty personal hygiene product containers and empty glue sticks that can’t be recycled anywhere else. Working with the Terracycle Brigade program, the students turn in such items to TerraCycle to receive cash. This year they will be using that money to benefit Nashville’s Room in the Inn program and the Nashville Rescue Mission programs and to send personal care items to residents in Haiti through the organization Live Beyond.

Enough energy was saved as a result of just the 55,566 aluminum cans the elementary school has recycled over the years to power a television set for 166,698 hours.

Lipscomb Academy teaches students from a very early age how to care for the world around them. The School Children’s Recycling Action Program (SCRAP), begins at the kindergarten level and instills in children the importance of recycling by demonstrating how to lead environmental service projects and the positive impact of such projects. By participating in school-led recycling efforts, the students are encouraged to model to other Tennessee schools how to be a leader in community recycling efforts.

The annual America Recycles Day collection is just one of a host of programs that have cemented the academy’s reputation across the nation as an innovative green school. Just last month, the school was named one of the top ten schools in Eastman Chemical’s “Good Sports Always Recycle” program.

Earlier this year, the school was named a 2013 U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon School and was a national award winner for the National Energy Education Development Project’s 33rd Annual Youth Awards for Energy Achievement. Also in 2013, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation’s Office of Energy Programs named the elementary school Primary School of the Year.

Last year, the SCRAP program earned the school the 2012 SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Environmental Excellence Award along with a $10,000 grant. The school was also named Tennessee’s 2011 Recycling School of the Year. In 2009 and 2013, the school received Governor’s Environmental Stewardship Awards.

In addition to the Friday, Nov. 15, recycling collection at Lipscomb Academy, 4517 Granny White Pike, Lipscomb University will hold a second day of collections at the Lipscomb Academy football field, at Lealand and Caldwell lanes, on Saturday, Nov. 16, at 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

For more details on the collections, contact Linda Phipps at 615.966.6629 or linda.phipps [at] lipscomb.edu or Ginger Reasonover at 615.966.6326 or ginger.reasonover [at] lipscomb.edu.

 

Household waste items accepted on both collection days are:

  • Small batteries, alkaline and rechargeable (A, AA, AAA, C, D, 9-volt, button) – No car batteries.
  • Compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) & fluorescent tubes
  • Used and well-worn clothing and linens (for charity use and cloth recycling)
  • Cell phones
  • Mercury thermometers can be exchanged for a digital thermometer
  • Empty personal-care containers, such as shampoo, conditioner, make-up, mascara, etc.
  • Unused and out-of-date medications, both prescriptive and over-the-counter
  • Ink cartridges
  • Plastic bags (grocery store, department store, dry cleaning, etc.)
  • Empty chip bags
  • Aluminum cans
  • Plastic beverage bottles
  • Newspaper

*No liquid wastes of any kind.

 

E-waste items accepted include:

Computers and Peripherals
Complete and partial systems (working or not), processors (CPUs), optical drives (CDROM, CDRW, DVD, etc.), network and communications hardware (modems, routers, hubs, etc.), drives (hard drives, floppy), keyboards, laptops, mice, monitors, network hardware (servers), paper tape readers and punchers, plotters, printers, tape drives

Home Electronics
TVs (CRT, flat panel, plasma, etc.), microwaves, mixers, phones (corded, cordless, and cellular), entertainment goods (VCRs, DVD players, radios and speakers but NO WHITE GOODS (including: refrigerators, freezers, washers, dryers).

Office Equipment
Barcode equipment, pagers, copy machines, fax machines, telephone systems (cordless, cellular, desk)

Security equipment
Cameras, recorders, alarms, VCR's, key pads

Utility and Power Equipment
CATV, cable, electric generators, gas meters, repeaters, transformers, water meters, specialty equipment, construction, production, manufacturing equipment

Metals
Aluminum, any gold bearing product, brass, copper, stainless, lead, nickel alloy, platinum, palladium, mercury, rare earth