Kudos to you, Kane County citizens.

With an amazing 1,288 attendees in just four hours, the 2017 Kane County Recycling Extravaganza held on July 8 was a whopping testimony to your willingness to do the right thing.

The event held at the Kane County Branch Court office parking lot in St. Charles might have been a record-breaker in a number of categories, although hard stats aren’t aren’t available for quick comparison. What organizers can say for sure is that the event was wildly successful, with smooth traffic flow, enthusiastic and plentiful volunteers and wait times of no more than a few minutes to unload what accumulated to thousands of pounds of recycled items.

The extravaganza included document shredding, and accepted for recycling: electronics, books, paint, bicycles, fluorescent tubes, mobility devices such as walkers and wheelchairs, textiles, batteries, garden tools and Styrofoam.

Want some fun facts?

Kane County residents brought in more than 50 tons of material for recycling or reuse!

• Accurate Document Shredding received and shredded three trucks full of confidential documents, equaling 35,000 pounds of paper recycled.
• Batteries Plus Bulbs collected a half-van-full of household and auto batteries.
• Chicago Textile Recyclers (Wipeco) collected a box-truck-full of clothes, shoes, linens and accessories
• Dart Container Corp. collected a semi-truck-full of Styrofoam.
• eWorks Recycling Services collected about 50,000 pounds of electronic equipment for recycling, filling two-and-a-half, 52-foot semi-trailers, as well as recycling all of the cardboard from boxes that people brought their items in.
• Fluorecycle, Inc. will process the thousands of fluorescent tubes collected for proper disposal.
• Pacesetter Books collected more than 8,500 pounds of books for reuse and recycling.
• Paint Disposal Services collected more than 900 cans of paint, which will be reused or repurposed into plastic latex products such as new 5-gallon paint buckets.
• Working Bikes collected 20 bikes, 12 helmets, and lots of parts.
• Additionally, Kane County collected four pairs of crutches, three wheel chairs, a walker, three sewing machines, and a bunch of used garden tools, which will be donated to the Garden Works Project for use in community gardens throughout the area.

Kane County Recycling Coordinator Jennifer Jarlard was thrilled with the turnout and the results.

“I want to thank the Kane County Office of Emergency Management for their stellar assistance directing and managing traffic for these large events,” she said. “This work is difficult and often thankless. But without them it would not be possible for residents to be able to drive as quickly and safely through the event.

“Thank you also to all of the many old and new volunteers and also to the partners who provided excellent service! We truly could not do it with out you!”

Got questions? Contact Kane County Recycling Coordinator Jennifer Jarland at recycle@countyofkane.org or 630-208-3841.

SOURCE: Kane County Recycles news release