North Central Rc&D Reports On Fall Collection Activities

RC&D collection activities were halted during the pandemic but are back on track, helping members of all 6 counties recycle. “We hosted three household hazardous waste and multiple paper shredding events this fall”, announced President Mike Burge. “The household hazardous waste collections were held in our eastern service area. Spencer, O'Neill and Stuart communities hosted these events. 38 drums of hazardous waste was collected in two days. Red Willow HHW of McCook was the vendor for the collection. They see to the proper recycling or disposal of all that was collected.”

The communities of Spencer, O'Neill and Stuart assisted with this project. O'Neill and the Villages of Spencer and Stuart helped in the organizing and had volunteers attend. We had a host of volunteers from each community. For the Spencer event, Lynn Sobotka, Delight Becker, Sarah Joy, Tracy & Trevor Goesch, Ernie and Carol Eilers, Melanie Black and Tracy Goesch. For O'Neill, Volunteers included Susan Wakefield, Randy Hupp, Jeanne Crumly, Delight Becker, Amy Shane, Lynn & Woody Sobotka, Sarah Joy and Delray Kumm. In Stuart, volunteers were Rick Shearer, Bob Lockman, Shawn Graves, Cody Munyon, Jeanne Shearer, Don Shearer, Lynn Sobotka and Sarah Joy. I was the one staff at all three events.

“The Household Hazardous Waste collection was in part made possible through a NDEE Grant. The grant covered about half of the total costs. The rest of the funds raised came from the communities and donations made by those dropping items off to make this event happen,” adds Burge. “Donations by the communities include Upper Elkhorn NRD, Stuart Community Club, Stuart Community Foundation, Village of Stuart, Grow Holt Co Ec Dev, City of O'Neill, Niobrara Valley Electric, City of Atkinson, Atkinson Community Foundation, Community Wardrobe Store, and O'Neill Chamber. Other donations were given by Villages of Butte, Spencer, Lynch, Bristow, Boyd County Supervisors, Lower Niobrara NRD, Spencer Foundation, Irene Stenger Fund and Spencer Community Ec Dev. We could not have accomplished this collection without their support.”

Burge goes on to comment, “Combining the fund raising and the collecting, this just could not have happened without ALL the support throughout the three communities. We send our thank you to everyone from the RC&D Counsel for supporting this project.”

The other collection this Fall was the annual paper shredding along the two routes- Highway 12 and Highway 20. “We did not collect as much with the paper shredding as we have in the past,” reports, Burge. “We don't know if we have helped people catch up with shredding or why the numbers were smaller. However we did collect 70 bins of documents that were destroyed on site. With more and more need for privacy protection, it was rewarding to hear the multiple comments of appreciation for offering this outlet.”

Communities that offered the paper shredding included on Highway 12- Springview, Naper, Butte, Spencer and first time on the route, Bristow. Highway 20 had stops in Merriman, Valentine, Bassett, Stuart, Atkinson and Inman.

Security Shredding Services provided the on-site shredding. The RC&D has worked with Lathan Asbra throughout the shredding events and appreciate the quick turnover from shredded documents to recycled paper on shelves of stores throughout the area.

There was a significant increase in the cost of the paper shredding this year. Generous donations given by those dropping off paper made a significant impact on covering this cost. The rest of the financing will come from the RC&D funds.

“The RC&D would like to say thank you to all those supporting these events, either financially or by volunteering their time. It is encouraging to see the interest in recycling throughout our 6 counties,” added Mike. “We look forward to supporting more recycling events in 2023.”

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