Tim Klomhaus of Elburn needed to recycle a number of hard-to-get-rid-of items around his house and was happy he found somewhere to do that over the weekend.
“I’ve got some fluorescents, some aerosols and some paint in the back of the truck,” Klomhaus said at the Kane County Recycling Extravaganza on Saturday staged in a parking lot at 540 S. Randall Road in St. Charles. “It’s been quite a while since I’ve brought things out but I first started doing it here in Kane County. Now I’ve accumulated enough stuff and it was time to come back again.”
A number of recycling stations were in operation at the Kane County event accepting everything from electronics, books, paint, aerosols and ink jet cartridges to smoke alarms, LED bulbs and fluorescents along with child car seats, strollers and bikes.
Clair Ryan, the county’s recycling program coordinator, spoke before Saturday’s event and said the collection offered a way for residents to get rid of “hard to recycle things that you can’t just throw in your regular curbside (pickup).”
“The car seats are something that people wait to get rid as well as the fluorescent bulbs,” she said. “Overall, we usually expect to see about 700 cars for this event.”
At the event, eWorks Electronic Services out of Wheeling was busy collecting items dropped off by residents. According to Kane County’s website, the group “funds its mission, in part, by collecting and processing various hard-to-recycle materials. It started with consumer electronics and has now expanded to include clothing, shoes and other textiles, scrap metal, books and other paper.”
Another service provider, PaceSetter Books, was on hand with a station manned by Fred Bazzoli of St. Charles, who said the group has “partnered with the county almost 20 years.”
“We pull out books that have a future use as a lot of the things that are brought here are going to be turned into cardboard. We try to pull out things that have value,” he said. “We’ve partnered with other organizations as well. During an event like this – it varies – but we’ve gotten as many as 15,000 pounds of books at one event and we can sort through them in four hours. We’re pretty good at knowing what has a future life. The county has always had a good mindset when it comes to recycling over the years.”
Four rows of cars were lined up at the start of the event, with drivers including Mahesh Parvathi of Algonquin waiting to drop off items to be recycled. He said he had a slew of electronics including laptop and desktop computers and some books to recycle.
“Like a lot of people, I started going through my house and getting rid of things during COVID,” Parvathi said as he waited to have the items unloaded. “With the kids now in college, now I have some time to clean up – at least, that’s how it works for me. This has been like five years in the making.”
Shell Lewis of Geneva said she had “just one box to get rid of” adding that, “I’ve come to recycling events before.”
“I got rid of a laptop and a TV set,” she said. “Absolutely, I’m happy to get rid of things responsibly even though there is a slight charge for some of the electronics. It’s definitely worth it.”
Margaret Wilson of Elgin brought some latex paint and some light bulbs to be recycled at the event.
“I wanted to get here early and not be in line for long. This is the first time I’ve come to something like this,” she said.
Carol Volintine of Big Rock brought some vacuum cleaners and TVs as well as some light bulbs to the recycling effort.
“We’ve come here lots of times but there’s a bigger line today,” she said as she waited with her daughter Georgene. “It’s been about a year since I was here last and I’ve now collected all this stuff. It’s a relief to get things out of the house.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
