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Lipscomb Recycles event offers opportunity to recycle e-waste and household items, Nov. 13-14

Lacey Klotz | 

Lipscomb Recycles_LARGE2

Each year, Lipscomb Academy and Lipscomb University offer the community two opportunities to recycle household items such as electronics, fluorescent lights, inkjet cartridges and outdated medications that standard recycling drop sites normally don’t accept.

This year, the academy will hold its annual collection on Friday, Nov. 13, at its elementary school campus at 4517 Granny White Pike, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Elementary school students help collect and sort the shampoo bottles, cell phones, batteries and many other items.

As a member of the Terracycle Brigade® program, the academy third-graders are making a special push to collect items that are not normally accepted by traditional recycling programs, such as potato chip bags, candy wrappers, drink pouches, empty personal care product bottles, empty glue sticks, ink pens and dried up coloring markers.

The university will hold its collection on the Lipscomb University campus on University Park Drive in front of Burton Health Sciences Center, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 14.

The two collections are held as part of America Recycles Day on Nov. 15.

This year, Lipscomb is partnering with ThriftSmart, and 100 percent of the proceeds from the ThriftSmart sales that day will benefit local charities. Community members can donate gently-used clothing, household goods, books, media and furniture to ThriftSmart and Room in the Inn will receive one dollar in ThriftSmart credit for every 10 pounds of material collected during this event.

New this year, Lipscomb will accept wire coat hangers, and donated items will go to the Warm Coats for Warm Hearts program at Granny White Church of Christ.

Household items and electronic waste will be collected along with all medications and recyclable materials. Metro Nashville police officers will be on-site to collect donated pharmaceuticals, and Shred-It will accept and securely shred paper documents during the Saturday event ONLY.

Tube-style televisions will also be accepted for a $20 fee and CRT monitors for a $5 fee.

However, white goods including refrigerators, freezers, washers and dryers as well as liquid wastes of any kind will not be accepted and are asked to remain at home.

Ginger Reasonover, Lipscomb Academy elementary school science lab coordinator and co-director of its environmental green team, said that this event is not only is this event a great convenience for the community and beneficial to the environment, but it supports several charities throughout the world.

“We support numerous charities locally, nationally and internationally,” said Reasonover. “For example, the used cell phones collected will be donated to Cell Phones for Soldiers, our partnership with ThriftSmart provides gift cards for Room in the Inn to give to families who are setting up their homes and we donate our plastic bag items to Trex so they can be recycled into park benches and decking materials. We plan to use recycling money that we generate this year to help create a springhouse for Made in the Streets, a teenage orphanage in Kenya.

“Other benefiting charities include: Monarch Watch to continue its restoration efforts as well as the Entrepreneurship Boot Camp for Veterans with Disabilities, whose mission is to provide post-9/11 veterans with disabilities resulting from military service training in entrepreneurship and small business management.”

Reasonover also explained how Lipscomb Recycles provides both the academy and university students a unique opportunity to make a difference.

“This event allows Lipscomb students see that no matter their age, they can still make a difference,” Reasonover continued. “It is so important to see that in everything you do has a positive or negative connotation to the environment, and we collect so many items that might have ended up in a landfill somewhere. It is nice to know we are helping our local environment, while helping people all over the world.”

Items accepted are listed below:

  • Electronic waste (Tube-style TV's - $20; CRT monitors - $5)
  • Unused and out-of-date medications, both prescriptive and over-the-counter
  • Gently used clothing, household goods, books, media and furniture to be donated to ThriftSmart. Non-saleable furniture cannot be accepted. Room in the Inn will receive one dollar of ThriftSmart credit for every 10 pounds of material collected at these events.
  • Used textiles for recycling, including clothes, shoes, rugs, luggage, pillows, cushions, etc.
  • Small batteries, alkaline and rechargeable (A, AA, AAA, C, D, 9-volt, button)
  • Compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) & fluorescent tubes
  • Cell phones
  • Ink cartridges
  • Plastic bags (grocery store, department store, dry cleaning, etc.)
  • Empty chip bags, juice pouches, and drink pouches
  • Solo® cups and other #6 plastic cups
  • Empty personal-care containers, such as make-up, mascara, lipstick, and other hair care and skin care containers.
  • Used markers of all kinds: dry erase, permanent, coloring, etc.
  • Aluminum cans
  • Plastic beverage bottles
  • Wire coat hangers to go to Warm Coats for Warm Hearts
  • Newspaper
  • Cardboard

No liquid wastes of any kind will be accepted.

E-waste items accepted include: 

Computers and Peripherals
Complete and partial systems (working or not), processors (CPUs), optical drives (CDROMCDRW, 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, monitors (CRT [$5 fee] and flat screen)

Home Electronics
TVs (CRT [$20 fee], flat panel, plasma, LED, etc.), microwaves, mixers, phones (corded, cordless, and cellular), entertainment goods (VCRs, DVD players, radios and speakers). 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, keypads

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, etc.

For a complete list of items accepted or for more information contact Linda Phipps at linda.phipps [at] lipscomb.edu or ext. 6629, or Ginger Reasonover at ginger.reasonover [at] lipscomb.edu or ext. 6326.