E-Cycling Weekend

The Exploreum is going green. Being that we utilize tremendous amounts of technology, we decided to go green with that as well. On August 9th and 10th we held our first ever Electronics Recycling (E-cycling) event. We collected any and all types of office and home office electronics: computers, phones, monitors, printers, cell phones and batteries.

In the beginning we did not know how to set up an e-cycling event. We contacted our local recyclers, Keep Mobile Beautiful. They put us in touch with a reputable electronics recycler. After a few calls to the recycler and a few contacts with local police and traffic engineering we were set to go.

Our first collection day started out large. We collected enough electronics to fill about ¼ of a full size Ryder truck. The afternoon went pretty slow. We had a trickle of items. It seemed that word had not spread to far yet. That afternoon all three of our local news stations came out to do pieces on our e-cycling event. That evening the pieces aired. Our second day was fast and furious. By the end of that day we went from having ¼ of the truck filled to having over ¾ filled. Most everyone we spoke with the second day said that they saw it on the news. The event turned out to be a great success. Everyone who brought their electronics was so grateful for the service. Like most of us they wanted to get rid of their electronics in a responsible way.

The added bonus was our ability to inform people about a new local electronics recycler in Mobile. Equity-E-Cycle opened about 2 months before this event. Our contracted recyclers from ERS (out of Atlanta) had no problem with us distributing information about our local recyclers. They all have the same mission at heart “be responsible and recycle your electronics.”

We had a small group of devoted volunteers who braved the heat and heavy lifting. They all did such a great job. Thank you to all of our volunteers: Tricia (My Wife), Mira, Kayla, Lynsey and Marissa (Murphy High School), Randy and Drew (University of Mobile), Ivey (Bay Keepers), William and Patrick (St. Pauls). The volunteers made all the difference.

The one thing I learned from this event is that this could be done in any city. With a little effort any community group, church, or museum could easily set up an event like this. It is a great way to do the right thing and help the community. If anyone has any questions about how we made the Exploreum event work feel free to contact me. (Tim Pula: 251-208-6858, tpula@exploreum.net )

If you have electronics to recycle in Mobile contact Equity-E-Cycle 251-415-3823.