Aligning with the national “America Recycles Day,” Fairfax Recycles Day has been recognized by the Board of Supervisors on November 15 for several years. The County’s Solid Waste Management Program traditionally celebrates with various events, contests and giveaways.
More than 80 Fairfax County households turned out to recycle, learn, and explore during the first-ever “Drop Off and Touch-A-Truck” event hosted by the Solid Waste Management Program.
Held on Nov. 16, at the Gerry Hyland South County Building in Alexandria, the event featured hands-on opportunities to recycle hard-to-dispose-of items, engagement with sustainability experts, and an impressive lineup of trucks and equipment.
The most commonly dropped-off items were e-waste. The combined weight of laptops, keyboards, monitors, cords, stereo equipment, sound mixers, and more came to well over 5,500 pounds!
Materials collected at the event included: clean textiles in any condition, glass bottles and jars, plastic bags, food waste, batteries and small e-waste.
Residents from more than 80 households arrived with armfuls of items they had been accumulating over the years. Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) volunteers were on hand to assist residents unloading their items and carting them to the check-in table.
Altogether, residents dropped off at least 3,500 items. While plastic bags weren’t individually counted, they filled two 70-gallon collection bins three times over.
Vehicles included three rear loaders including SWMP’s EV truck, the Purple Glass Monster, Wastewater’s flusher truck and CCTV van with its cool robotic equipment, a food waste collector, and two firetrucks from Local 424. At least 25 families with young children were counted walking around, and the sounds of the horn from one rear loader in particular could be heard very clearly throughout the event!
The day was fun and informative for everyone who attended. A cultural element was the delicious atol de elote beverage that we had “on tap”—atol de elote is a traditional corn masa-based drink from Central America, which is served warm and is popular from November through December.
A huge thanks to all participating staff from DPWES and sister agencies:
Thanks to all of our partner exhibitors and collectors (in alphabetical order):
