Cardboard, boxes, and electronics can be dropped off at a special recycling collection scheduled for Dec. 30, 2017.

By Ronni Newton

As holiday gifts are opened and the packaging is discarded, trash bins and recycling bins tend to fill up or even overflow, prompting the Town of West Hartford to add a special recycling event to help ensure that more of the waste material is disposed of properly. 

For the second year in a row, West Hartford’s Department of Public Works will offer a post-holiday cardboard and box drop-off event. This year the recycling event will be held on Saturday, Dec. 30, 2017 between the hours of 8 a.m. and noon in the rear parking lot of the Department of Public Works at 17 Brixton St. The snow date is Saturday, Jan. 6, 2018.

Because people consume more cardboard at this time of year, even with weekly recycling the blue bin can fill up. Residents may be tempted to just add unwanted cardboard and boxes to their trash bin rather than keep it lying around until the next recycling day comes around, and this event is intended to avoid that.

“Last year’s event was widely successful with residents dropping off more than 112 yards of material,” Director of Public Works John Phillips said in a news release. “This year’s event will be expanded to include an electronics collection for those with unwanted electronics.”

Examples of items eligible for electronics recycling include computers, laptops, printers, fax machines, monitors, TVs, cellphones, tablets, video games, game consoles, VCR/DVD machines, remotes, keyboards, and small appliances. Items that cannot be dropped off for electronics recycling include smoke detectors, ballasts, propane tanks, paint, household hazardous waste, and any appliances containing Freon such as air conditioners, refrigerators, and dehumidifiers.

Take 2 Inc., a Waterbury based electronics recycler, will be onsite to collect the electronic materials.

Residents are asked to break down and flatten or collapse boxes. The cardboard doesn’t need to be associated with holiday packaging, but it must be clean – meaning no greasy pizza boxes. However, the non-greasy parts of pizza boxes can be torn off and recycled.

All non-cardboard material, such as styrofoam and other packing material, wrapping paper, and plastic should be removed from the cardboard.

Public Works asks residents not to leave material on the ground outside the dumpster.

This recycling event is part of the ongoing effort by the Department of Public Works to reduce waste and promote recycling in West Hartford, Phillips said.

For more information contact the Department of Public Works at 860-561-8100.

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