Recycle Rama

Hampton area residents have about one week left to empty closets and load their cars.

Hampton Township School District’s ninth annual Recycle Rama is set for 9 a.m. to noon May 21 in the high school parking lot and cafeteria.

Multiple organizations will accept — at no charge — bikes, books, batteries, building materials, cell phones, clothing, craft supplies, household goods, TVs, computer components, eyeglasses, electronics, Halloween costumes, shoes, towels, blankets, crutches, walkers, wheelchairs and packing peanuts.

Burned-out, fluorescent light bulbs — the long ones — also will be accepted for $1 per tube.

Iron City Workplace Services will accept documents and personal papers for certified destruction and shredding at its Lawrenceville facility. People can drop off up to two boxes or two bags of papers at no charge.

“You can basically drive in, have people unload your car, and you could just keep going,” said Danelle Jameson, 49, the Hampton mother of three who oversees the committee of volunteers that annually organizes Recycle Rama.

“I have a lot of good people who help me,” Jameson said.

Nine years ago, Hampton Middle School technology teacher Glenn Geary conceived the idea for the first Recycle Rama.

“The real reason it started was to try and teach kids and the community to do their part to protect and not destroy the environment,” Geary wrote in an email. “Our society loves technology, but one of the biggest problems with technology is the disposal of it.

“In eight years, Recycle Rama has taken hundreds of thousands of pounds of hard-to-dispose-of electrical equipment out of the conventional waste stream.”

Recycle Rama also will include a giveaway of Hampton Talbots athletic wear and equipment in the high school cafeteria. People can help themselves, or donate Talbots-themed clothing and goods on site.

The late Girl Scout troop leader Jennifer Bergman of Hampton organized the first collection and giveaway of Talbots gear with fellow Girl Scout leader Linda Colbaugh. Carrie McCarthy and Christie Knott of Girl Scout Troop 51519 now organize the annual recycling of Talbots goods.

Organizations slated to accept other goods during Recycle Rama are the Salvation Army, Construction Junction, the Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse, JVS Environmental, Batteries Plus, Brother’s Brother Foundation and Shaler North Hills Library.

Construction Junction will take plug-in tools, for resale, along with doors, plumbing fixtures, unbroken windows, lumber at least 4 feet long without nails, light fixtures that use non-fluorescent light bulbs, wood furniture and unused ceramic tiles.

The Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse will accept watercolor, acrylic and artists’ oil paints, brushes, pencils, pens, sketchbooks, fabric (larger than a quarter yard), manual typewriters, thread, buttons, vinyl records, paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture, photographs, and clean, vintage tins.

“Last year we were able to keep 41 tons of materials out of landfills,” said Barbara Moore, materials manager at the Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse in Point Breeze.

Shoes in any condition will be accepted, too, to benefit the Clear Thoughts Foundation, a Pine-based group working to find a drug cure for dementia. The foundation aims to collect 10,000 pairs by July for resale to Funds2Orgs, a social enterprise company that ships the shoes to partners in 26 developing countries.

Hampton parents who help organize the recycling fair include Sue English, Theresa Friday, Maryellen Meehan Joseph, Jacqueline Stadler, Donna McGinley, Julie Ware, Amber Pucciarello and Carrie McCarthy. Hampton language teacher Pauline Spring and Mary Lou Ellena Wygonik, retired enrichment facilitator at Hampton High School, also are involved.

Committee member Stadler collects towels and blankets for reuse in area animal shelters.

Barbro Kelley and Marsha Turner, co-leaders of Girl Scout Troop 50339, oversee the recycling of eyeglasses and Halloween costumes collected.

“The glasses go to the Lions Club, and the costumes go to the Children’s Home of Pittsburgh,” Jameson wrote in an email.

Scott Stickney, enrichment facilitator at Hampton High School, helps recruit the volunteers who help unload cars.

“Bob Friday — husband of volunteer Theresa Friday — and my husband, Matt Jameson, come to the event every year,” Danelle Jameson wrote in an email. “They work hard, mostly doing heavy lifting and being bossed around, to make it a success.”

Volunteers also will include the Jamesons’ children: daughter, Caitlin, 20, a student at Penn State University; son, Declan, 16; and daughter, Sarah, 18, both students at Hampton High School.

Deborah Deasy is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 724-772-6369 or[email protected].