Over 14,000 drop-offs from at least 1,500 households have occurred at the Polk County Recycling Center since it opened in November 2021. While those numbers may seem large, they actually reflect that only around 8% of Polk County households have utilized the recycling services, with less than 2% utilizing the services in any given month.
Polk County Recycling & Beautification (PCRB) – a nonprofit organization that has partnered with Polk County to provide a reliable recycling service for the residents of East Texas – would love to see those numbers grow, however.
Kari Miller, president of the board of directors of PCRB, and Richard Brinley, one of the board members, provided a program for the Rotary Club of Livingston recently in which they spoke about the organization which is sustained by grants, donations and the sale of recyclable materials.
Located at 10311 N. Hwy. 146 in Livingston at the intersection of Hwy. 146 and FM 2665, the hours for collection are Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The center can accept single-use plastic bottles, jugs, and jars (clean and with no caps), flattened corrugated cardboard and aluminum and steel “tin” cans. They ask that all materials be relatively clean which will make them more valuable to buyers, helping to support the program for years to come. They also ask that materials be separated by plastic, aluminum, steel and cardboard to assist the volunteers.
To date, 167 tons of recyclable materials have been collected and 149 tons have been shipped, resulting in the organization receiving $21,427 which extrapolates to about $0.07 per pound, Miller said. She pointed out that while that may not sound like the best return on investment, it is still tons of materials that have been diverted from the local landfill.
For perspective, Miller said that 50 water bottles, 20 soda bottles or 30 aluminum cans equal one pound.
PCRB will have its third load of plastic coming up in January. With a baler onsite that was funded through a grant, volunteers bale the materials and store them at the center until they have a large enough load to be hauled off and sold.
According to Brinley it takes a full week to complete a bale, which weighs between 600 and 800 pounds. One bale is equivalent to 30,000 water bottles, 11,000 soda bottles, 6,000 milk jugs or 800 medium moving boxes.
“To date, the amount of plastic we’ve collected is equivalent to three million water bottles, 1.1 million soda bottles or 400,000 milk jugs. The amount of cardboard we’ve collected is equivalent to 150,000 medium moving boxes,” Miller said.
Since its inception, 60 volunteers have contributed 7,000 hours, with six volunteers contributing 50% of those hours.
Additionally, PCRB has also become an official Keep Texas Beautiful affiliate with the advent of Keep Polk County Beautiful, and its volunteers have cleaned up 19 miles of roadside and picked up over 3,500 pounds of litter.
They are always looking for groups to partner with for local cleanups and even provide the vests, gloves, grabbers and garbage bags. The cleanup efforts, however, are limited to county roads in the unincorporated areas of the county and not TxDOT roads.
Last November, the center conducted an electronics recycling event that was considered successful and they are now able to collect electronics all the time. This includes anything that takes a battery or has a cord. Examples include televisions, monitors, printers, copiers, fax machines, scanners, computers, laptops, cell phones, tables, e-readers, iPods, MP3 players, CD/DVD/Blu-ray players, game consoles, cameras, camcorders, digital projectors, microwaves, stereos, receivers, speakers, routers, network hubs, radios, telephones, calculators, vacuum cleaners, air purifiers, fans, power tools, cables, cords, power strips, chargers, speaker wire, headphones, game controllers, remotes, mice, keyboards and more. There is a nominal fee, however, for televisions, monitors and printers.
PCRB holds an Earth Day fundraiser at Tempe Creek Vineyard & Farms each April and just recently held its fourth annual upcycled art contest and show which spotlights creations made from things that would ordinarily be discarded. A fall fundraiser is slated for 12:30-4 p.m. Oct. 26 at the Polk County Commerce Center and will feature Electric Violinist Brenda Rengel, catering by Katies Café & Bakery, a silent auction, raffle drawing and door prizes and more. To sponsor or donate, contact Miller at 936-433-5182 or Diane Robinson at 281-414-8498.
For additional information on PCRB, the Polk County Recycling Center or Keep Polk County Beautiful, go to pcrbtexas.org.
