Jeff Lange of Elgin had a truckload of paint cans to get rid of on Saturday and Kane County’s recycling event in St. Charles fit the bill nicely.
“All of this paint, it’s from my house, my daughter’s house and my parents’ house,” he said. “It’s just been building up over the years. Some of it is old – really old. I know it’s going to cost me some money to get rid of it, but I’m prepared.”
Beginning at 8 a.m. Saturday, Kane County held Spring Shred and More, a four-hour recycling and shredding event at 540 S. Randall Road in St. Charles.
The recycling effort included a wide list of items being accepted including clothing, shoes, textiles, small or decorative home goods and books. Some stations at the event took in bikes and paint, as well as paper documents that needed to be shredded.
No electronics were accepted at this event. Latex paint was accepted and there were fees “to cover transport,” organizers said.
Kane County Recycling Program Coordinator Clair Ryan said the event always nets a huge amount of materials and that there would be “essentially a repeat of this event later this year on Sept. 27.”
“On July 19 we have our extravaganza event where we collect the broadest amount of materials, but we don’t have shredding like we have this weekend,” she said on Saturday. “Our confidential document shredding is always a very popular service. It’s hard to find on-demand shredding, so you kind of have to wait for these events if you don’t have a desk shredder.”
Ryan said “at least 25,000 pounds of paper” are typically shredded at the event.
Ryan said the station at the event accepting bikes “is local now as Hesed House has a bike ministry that repairs bicycles for their clients and families in the local area that are struggling.”
“The bikes are for transportation to get a job and that sort of thing. This is the third time we’ve worked with them but they became a permanent partner last year,” Ryan said. “They’re super easy to work with and there are very local benefits.”
Bruce Bachmeier of Aurora, who serves as director of donations and program support for Hesed House homeless shelter in Aurora, said the group has participated twice in the collection effort and has received strong bike donations.
“The first time we were here, we got over 50 bikes last summer, and the second time it was between 20 and 30 bikes,” he said. “Those kinds of numbers make this worth it. We can turn the bikes over in a couple of weeks or less as we have some amazing volunteers that work on getting them up and running. Sometimes, we can turn them around in a couple of hours and get them to people who need them, since transportation is the biggest obstacle for people at the shelter. It’s a very rewarding ministry.”
Volunteer Ruth Kuzmanic of St. Charles said she has worked a number of times at the county’s recycling events and that she “always likes to do community stuff.”
“We like having all of this material collected and recycled and it keeps our community clean,” she said.
Marty Locke of North Aurora brought some items to be shredded at the event that included old bank statements.
“I just need to get this stuff shredded,” he said. “I have two boxes and I’ve done this for years. I know when it comes up I always bring documents, nothing else.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
