Logan County residents flock to Lincoln Saturday to rid themselves of old televisions and computer monitors

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[July 14, 2017]   LINCOLN - If anyone was surprised by the massive turnout on Saturday for the special recycling event at the Logan County Fairgrounds, it was not Mitzi Rohlfs, Director of the Logan County Joint Solid Waste Agency.

Vehicles lined the entire length of Postville Drive from Fifth Street to the Car wash adjacent to Postville Drive on Woodlawn Road. The line also wound throughout the fairgrounds with traffic directed to go from the west gate to the north end, past the livestock show barn and back around to near the east gate exit at the fairgrounds before making their deposit of worn out televisions and computer monitors.






"I knew it would be this way,” Rohlfs said as she checked the identification of a driver. She had anticipated the large crowds and had put the word out early last week there would be a limit on how many semi loads of used TVs and monitors this drive would be able to handle.

As a result, vehicles were lined up before the opening time of 9 a.m. and continued to come in quicker than they went out for quite some time.

The special recycling event was a partnership effort between the city of Lincoln and the LCJSWA, with the city picking up the tab for the first semi load. The LCJSWA would then pick up the tab for no more than two more trailers this go around. Rohlfs had told the members of the Lincoln City Council late last month that her goal was to have this one large event now to help dispose of items Logan County residents have had on hand for quite some time. She is hopeful that getting the big event behind her, she will then be able to have regular, smaller events in the future, contingent upon available funds.

Working with a recycling firm from Bloomington, Rohlfs got a very good rate for this event. The semi-trailers were to cost $400 each. The city of Lincoln agreed to pay the first $400, and Alderman Tracy Welch also publicly encouraged Logan County residents to make a donation to assist in covering the balance of the cost of three trailers.

The city of Lincoln provided some labor for the event, including city employees who were paid to operate the front end loader that would stack the large cardboard cartons in the trailers as they were filled.


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There were also plenty of volunteers including city aldermen, members of the LCJSWA Board of Directors, city employees who volunteered, and members of the community.

The event was open to all Logan County residents, and Rohlfs spent the most of her time checking identification, assuring that only local households were permitted to take advantage of the free offering. There were other rules that had to be followed as well. No more than five pieces per household, and TVs or computer monitors with broken screens or exposed CRT (Cathode Ray Tubes) were not accepted.

As vehicles made their way to the collection point, Rohlfs checked id's, verified the number of items being dumped and checked to make sure the items were not busted up into pieces.

The vehicles were then pulled up, and volunteers unloaded them, sorting items immediately. Smaller items were taken directly to the trailer, while bulkier items were placed in the cardboard cartons, other very large pieces were set aside to be individually loaded as time would allow.







When the large cartons were fully loaded, they were wrapped with clear shrink wrap, and a tractor with forklift then loaded them onto the trailer.

[Nila Smith]

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