IMS Support Helps Heavy Trash Day

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Speedway Jr High football team members assisted in unloading recycle items.

Photo by Jay Thompson

(posted Oct 11)

There was no traffic back up this time at the October 11 Speedway heavy trash drop. By noon, Commissioner Wanda Smith had five pages of signatures to record participants dropping off their items. Last year's drop off had cars lined up for blocks as residents waited to drop off unused items at the street department. This year the IMS allowed the town to use its eight acre parking lot at 16th and Polco.

Speedway Solid Waste Commissioner Christie Manion made sure items that could be recycled or reused were separated from the pile. Those items spared were collected to be donated to Goodwill or to Asset Recycling.

Manion complimented the volunteer help she received from the eighth grade football team. They assisted with home pickups that raised money for the Relay for Life, and helped unload cars and trucks at the site.

Grooms Tire Recycling collected used tires for shredding. The shredded rubber is deposited on dirt roads at the landfill to help give the heavy machinery better traction when compacting the trash.

Cal Hultquist is looking for a west side location to build a plastic recycling facility. Instead of shipping the plastics to China to be recycled, Hultquist's company, The Appliance Outlet, has found some Chinese investors to open a recycling business in Indianapolis. Hultquist said it was a waste of time to send the plastics to China to be recycled and returned to the US. He expects to create ten to thirty jobs for the business that will break the plastic down into its original resins so it can be used again.

Hultquist was at the event to collect freon appliances. Hultquist said most recyclers just cut the freon lines and let the gas escape into the air. "It's horrible for the atmospheric environment." Instead, he removes the contaminants, moisture and oil from the freon so it can be used again. Freon sells for about $800 for a 30 lb canister.

The Appliance Outlet sells scratch and dented merchandise from companies like Sears and H.H Gregg, and recycles packing materials from the appliances sold by the stores as well.