Melody Tuschel. Recycling Coordinator & Outreach for Monroe County, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about recycling options.
Election signs can be recycled.
Tuschel said, “We are excited. This is the first election season that we’ve been able to do a program like this, where the yard signs will be recycled, and because of the special handling, they do have to be delivered to certain sites on certain schedules and be bailed and set up to the recycling facility to be sold for commodity and reuse. So we’re excited to offer that collection at four different locations starting November 11 and it will go until November 22. You can drop your signs off Monday through Friday, 8am to 3pm at either Key Largo transfer station, Long Key transfer station, Cudjoe transfer station or the Rockland transfer station. I do want to emphasize that all hardware and posts must be removed and separated from the corrugated plastic before they can be dropped off. There will be a container for the signs as well as the metal hardware at each drop off location. So save the metal. We will recycle that as well, but it cannot remain on the sign, so we’ll need to separate those materials before we drop them off at those locations during those times.”
Is there any limit as to how many signs someone can bring?
Tuschel said, “No, absolutely not bring as many as you can fit in your car. The campaigns are encouraged to pick up their own signs after the election, but as we know, some get missed. So if your neighborhood ambassadors want to pick them up and bring them in, that’s great. We’ve also reached out to the candidates, so they’re aware of this program as well, and they can participate and the code enforcement offices of the municipalities and the counties are aware to be able to bring them in also.”
The tire recycling program has been successful as well.
Tuschel said, “It was wonderful. For all three events combined, we collected 356 tires. So super excited to keep those out of the landfill, keep them out of the mangroves, out of the waterways, and get them up to American Tire where they’re actually crumbled and reused.”