The Meramec Regional Planning Commission, with funding from the Ozark Rivers Solid Waste Management District gathered 5.27 tons of residential scrap electronics, appliances and tires at the collection, held in St. Robert. The regional planning commission said a total of 92 vehicles from within the Ozark Rivers seven-county region — Crawford, Dent, Gasconade, Maries, Phelps, Pulaski, Washington — dropped off items at the collection.
The Meramec Regional Planning Commission partnered with the city of St. Robert, who provided city staff to assist with the collection. The city also provided the drop-off site at the St. Robert Community Center. “We want to say thanks to the City of St. Robert and its staff for making this event possible,” said Bonnie Prigge, executive director of the regional planning commission. “Partnerships like this are so valuable and so important for the region.”
Brady Wilson, chairman of the Ozark Rivers Solid Waste Management District, says these special collections are valued not only as a convenience to local residents, but also as a way to reduce the environmental impact by keeping potentially toxic electronic waste out of landfills. “I believe the special collections are important to the residents of the communities within our region because it offers them an affordable option for properly disposing of, and recycling the items we tend to refer to as “orphan wastes” or those items that are difficult to find a home for,” Wilson said. “Whole tires and appliances are banned from landfills. In addition, these collection events help to gather these items which otherwise can often end up in county ditches and streams, thereby contaminating the local landscape and the environment.”