Milwaukee, Wisconsin - Milwaukee area residents brought nearly 36 tons of electronics and pharmaceuticals to collection sites during the Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge, organizers said.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued the challenge involving over 100 projects in hundreds of cities across eight states in the Great Lakes basin.
More than 700 residents brought old and broken electronics (e-waste) weighing nearly 32 tons to the April 26 collection organized by the city of Milwaukee Department of Public Works (DPW) in the Italian Community Center parking lot.
About 3.5 tons of unused pharmaceuticals were turned by 2,350 residents at numerous sites in four counties on April 19 during the third annual Medicine Collection Day organized by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD).
"We are talking about protecting Lake Michigan and the environment," said Bharat Mathur, EPA Region 5 deputy administrator in Chicago, Illinois. "Over 100 communities and organizations have stepped up around the Great Lakes to meet this challenge."
"The city of Milwaukee and the (MMSD) are amongst 26 communities and organizations around the Great Lakes selected to receive a total of $500,000 in EPA grants," Mathur said.
"The Great Lakes are an irreplaceable national treasure" and "vital to commerce and recreation in the upper Midwest," Mathur said. "They are the largest source of fresh water on Earth and they provide drinking water to over 33 million of us."
Mathur said "recycling unwanted electronics and medicines" helps prevent "contaminations from polluting the Great Lakes."
The e-waste collection site averaged three cars per minute. More than two thirds of the collection involved computers and related equipment.
Organizers collected 643 computer monitors weighing over ten tons. Residents dropped off 338 televisions weighing nearly seven tons.
Other computer related equipment turned in included over seven tons of personal computers and nearly five tons of computer printers. Eight percent of the collection, weighing over two tons, involved miscellaneous e-waste like cell phones and other electronic items.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said the "recycling televisions and computers reduces the risk of toxins contained in these products being released into our air and water."
"Too often unwanted household electronics are thrown out and end up in the landfill," Barrett said. "Discarded electronics are the fastest growing segment of the municipal solid waste stream."
Recycling e-waste helps keep heavy metals out of landfills while fighting unwanted pollution created by manufacturing new products, said Rick Meyers, Milwaukee DPW recycling manager.
"Some of the lead, cadmium, mercury and other precious metals could leach into the groundwater" in landfills, Meyers said. The challenge helps the economy by "restoring some very valuable materials that otherwise would be acquired through mining and other destructive environmental practices."
EPA officials said the challenge goals were exceeded several times over although complete results are still being compiled. The goals were recycling one million pounds of electronics and the proper disposal of one million pills.
The pharmaceutical collection was named a "prescription for clean water and safe kids."
In just four hours, over 7,000 pounds of unused medication were taken to collection sites in Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine, and Washington counties.
"MMSD takes (the challenge) seriously," said MMSD executive director Kevin Schaefer. "Every day we work very hard to keep pollutants out of the waterways."
"This keeps (the medications) out of the waterways and makes it a more liveable place for all of us in Milwaukee," Schaefer said.
Pharmaceuticals should never be poured down the drain or flushed because wastewater treatment plants are not designed to remove some of the chemicals, organizers said.
Police destroyed the controlled substances including narcotic pain killers, cough syrup with codeine, and tranquilizers. Veolia Environmental Services incinerated non-controlled substances including blood pressure and cholesterol medication.
Under an EPA grant, the non-profit Earth Healing Initiative (EHI) in Marquette, Michigan offered interfaith liaisons in numerous challenge cities to encourage members of local churches and temples to volunteer or participate in Earth Day events.
The EHI is producing online videos for numerous challenge cities.
The EHI distributed 5,000 of nearly 200,000 postcards promoting the medicine collection to interfaith contacts in the Milwaukee area, said liaison Rev. Brad Brown, Lutheran Campus Ministry pastor at Marquette University.
The EHI involves American Indian tribes and a coalition of churches synagogues and numerous faith traditions cooperating to heal, protect and defend the environment, said EHI founder Rev Jon Magnuson of Marquette Michigan.
