Sustainable Saratoga’s third annual Saratoga Recycles Day was a huge success. Almost 500 vehicles came to recycle or repurpose their broken or unwanted items. With a newly designed traffic pattern, vehicles moved through the stations quickly and wait times were minimal. We collected 380 TVs and monitors this year, contributing to a total of over 27 thousand pounds of electronics that will be responsibly recycled and kept out of the landfill. We heard from many folks who save up their items all year long just waiting for this event. Saratoga really does RECYCLE!
THANK YOU to the more than forty volunteers who helped plan and staff this event. We could not provide these types of programs without our dedicated volunteers. From the months of planning and organizing by the Zero Waste Committee, to the volunteers that worked a long day on Saturday at the event, we rely on our volunteer team to give their time to us, and to this community, to make Saratoga more sustainable.
We also want to thank Scott Bergmann for capturing the spirit of the day on camera. Thank you to the City of Saratoga Springs for loaning us their orange traffic cones. Thank you to everyone who helped!
In addition to reducing what ends up in the landfill, another goal of the event is to help other local non-profit organizations collect items that they can reuse or repurpose for a good cause. This year, we worked with American Clothing, Shelters of Saratoga, B.E.S.T., Bikeatoga, the Saratoga Springs Lions Club and Her Treasure Box.
The Prospect Center received several truckloads of donated clothing and textiles from American Clothing. The four carloads of donated fabric, art supplies, and other notions will be put to good use by Her Treasure Box, a thrift store whose proceeds are used to benefit victims of trafficking. Shelters of Saratoga collected 55 sleeping bags and 48 backpacks and duffle bags that will be used to help many people this coming winter.
Over 700 items, including sheets, blankets, men’s clothing, and 14 adult bikes were donated to B.E.S.T. to benefit the backstretch workers at the Saratoga Racetrack. We collected 67 bikes total, and 38 of those bikes are heading to Bikeatoga’s workshop to keep them busy refurbishing bikes for quite a while!
All of this is due to the generosity of our community, so thank you! We are already discussing new non-profit groups to include in our collection offerings for 2020.