Tons of Goods Recycled Saturday, as Sammamish Residents Pitch in at Spring Dropoff Event

Sammamish residents waited patiently Saturday at the entrance of .

Sitting in their cars, trucks, vans and SUVs, they checked in with a worker at the city's Spring Recycling Collection Event. Then, they slowly made their way to the right place in the school parking lot to drop off motor oil, batteries, TVs, computer monitors, cardboard and other items.

The city worked with Olympic Environmental Resources to organize the annual event, which lasted six hours. That company also worked with subcontractors. 

As people carried goods from their vehicles, bulky TVs sat in large cardboard boxes near a long-haul trailer. Workers wrapped heavy duty plastic around many TVs before they were loaded.

There were even a few wooden TVs that was ready to be shipped for reuse or recycling. Old toilets sat stacked in the back of a metal cargo container, as did cardboard.

Stephen Royse of All Battery was busy collecting car and household batteries. He also offered some wise advice about dropping off items at recycling events.

So, one question popped up: How much stuff would the city and recycling crews actually collect on Saturday?

Paul Devine, general manager for Olympic Environmental Resources, said Saturday's numbers would have to be tallied. But he had a quick rundown from last spring.

By the Numbers: Spring Recycling 2010 

1,200 is the estimate of number of vehicles to go through parking lot on Saturday, April 16, 2011

1,000 TV sets

1,000 pounds of oil

500 tires

500 computer monitors

200 vehicles, on average, that showed up each hour for Saturday's recycling event

50 tons of electronic items, including TVs, computer monitors, copiers and fax machines

20 tons of electronic goods, such as fax machines and copiers

20 tons, top estimate of wood waste, such as tree stumps

5 pounds of lead active batteries

3.33 is the number of vehicles that showed up, on average, each minute to drop items off on Saturday

3 pounds of alkaline batteries

Observations

Paul Devine, Olympic Environmental Resources general manager:

"These are huge numbers for a city such as Sammamish." 

Tim Greenan, Olympic Environmental Resources site supervisor:

"We've been busy all day long. Many people save their stuff for us twice a year. Everyone is getting flat-screen TVs. So, they're getting rid of their old ones."