Spring Cleaning by the Tonnage

Saturday's Warren Green Fair offered opportunities to recycle almost anything local households might have, from shoes to books to last year's computer system.

And residents didn't miss the chance to get rid of items, with lines of cars loaded with yesterday's fat TV sets and last year's fashionable running shoes waiting to drop off the items. 

The annual event, sponsored by the Warren Township Green Team, not only collects the items which can recycled, but also benefits township coffers, according to the Green Team's Laura Mandell.

"We get grant money from the state, based on what we recycle above and beyond the regular household recycling," Mandell said. She said the township is among the county's highest recipients of the recycling grants because of projects like the Green Fair.

And after seeing the piles of CPUs, television sets, monitors, printers and sound systems piled up for Newtech Recycling employees to load into a truck, the township may well move up in the county ranking.

Previously, the fair had offered electronic recycling, but this was the first year the county's contracted recycler (Newtech) participated, which Green Team member David Gabel said was a big improvement over last year's planning.

"We had a small truck, which we filled in the first 10 minites," he said.

Mandell looked over the piles of items and noted all of them contain toxins which work their way into the water supply and soil when not properly recycled. "Recycling keeps that out of the environment," she said.  

In addition to the recycling, the Green Fair included an informational stand for an effort underway by Watchung Hills Regional senior Monica Mahal to secure regular recycling pickups at Duderstandt Fields and the East County Park Pop Warner playing fields.

She said the county is requesting $600 to cover the costs of recycling bins, which she is collecting through various fundraisers—including a jar at the Green Fair, which held a growing pile of bills.

And anyone interested in meeting one of the area's most recent converts to all-electric vehicle driving could chat with Cathy Haines, who drove her new Mitsubishi i-MiEV. The four-door vehicle offers 110-volt charging, unlike most all-electric vehicles, and can get about 60 miles on a charge—which the Long Hill resident noted is plenty for her travels around Warren and the area.

Haines teaches environmental science at Watchung Hills Regional, and she asked her students to calculate the amount of carbon she was saving by driving the i-MiEV instead of her former vehicle (an SUV).

"We're saving so much carbon—and that's really important to me," she said.