The 6th Annual Mothers In Action Community Recycling Clean Up was held on Saturday, March 23, 2019 from 9:00am-3:00pm in the Crenshaw Square, on the corner of Crenshaw Boulevard and Coliseum Street. The free drive-thru, organized collection event arrived just in time for local residents to begin their spring cleaning.
Cars circled the block as early as 6:30AM to drop off their recyclables. Each car was systematically assigned to either a hot zone, shredding or both. The hot zone is for items such as, medications, syringes, motor oil, paint, tires, aerosol cans, pesticides, mercury thermometers, fire extinguishers, propane tanks and electronics. For confidential and safe shredding, each participant could shred up to two, thirty-three gallon trash bags of documents.
Electronic Waste (a.k.a. “e-waste”), such as batteries, monitors, remote controls, computers, monitors, keyboards, telephones and radios were popular recyclables.
ERI (Electronic Recycling International) Senior Mobile Events Manager, Steve Eckart manages their events all across the country for 28 years and encourages people to get rid of their old box-shaped televisions since they’re not environmentally friendly, and there is value to disposing of these items. “Without LED coating on your TV, you can be exposed to radiation. Everything has some kind of value, that’s why it’s good to recycle.”
Large crates stacked with old microwaves and hard drives were forklifted to their next location. Chemists dressed in all white safety uniforms broke down batteries and removed the hazardous materials from people’s cars. Clean Harbor Chemist, Bernard Davis, said “This event helps the public get rid of the waste they have in their homes. People bring everything that’s been sitting in their garage.”
Holman United Methodist Church members Felix Oseitutu and Bernie Oliver, shared “Holman participates in many activities around the community to help the environment. We’re very concerned about the environment so we’re putting all of our efforts to help clean up our community.” “We understand it difficult to recycle tires and we want to be apart of keeping the community cleaner and recycling.”
Mothers In Action volunteers Brother Patrick Muhammad and Dejai Marshall stated, “We’re here to make sure traffic is flowing easy so people can have a smooth transition for their recycle.” “We had a really nice turnout, a lot of people came to recycle.”
Carrell Howard, administrative assistant, Mothers In Action “Helping our community making sure it stays clean and the residents know they have some place to go, they don’t have to travel miles and miles away to get it done and they can just do it their own community.”
Mothers In Action would like to give a special thanks to their sponsors and community partners that included Los Angeles Sentinel Newspaper, Taste of Soul, L.A. Sanitation, Empowerment Congress West Area Neighborhood Development Council, Brotherhood Crusade, City National Bank, L.A. Conservation Corps, Holman United Methodist Church, CopyCity, Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, Council President Herb Wesson, Public Works, Shred-It USA, Ashley Stewart, LAPD and Denny’s. Mothers In Action was also very grateful all the staff and volunteers that made the event a great success.
The event lasted until 3pm and never slowed down. Convenient, fast, free, well organized and you did not have to leave the comfort of your car. Relief could be seen on people’s faces because they were able to recycle items that they have been hoarding and holding onto, which has also cost them money, by paying for storage space. Green is good.
All Photos by Kristina Dixon
