Sustainable UF hosts Spring Collection Day

About 100 people donated items to Sustainable UF’s Spring Collection Day at the Stephen O’Connell Center parking lot.

Organizations throughout Alachua County made it easier for the community to get rid of unwanted household items.

“We really feel like this event provides a really convenient way to make sure that their disposing of items in a way that is either going to benefit the community by being repurposed or it's going to be disposed of properly,” UF Office of Sustainability Outreach and Communications Coordinator.

Alanna Carinio, a waste alternatives specialist for the Alachua County Solid Waste and Resource Recovery, collected donated items such as school and art supplies for an organization called Tools for Schools.

“Teachers are very creative and they definitely need anything they can to teach in the classroom,” Carinio said. “This takes a lot of weight out of our teachers in the community. When people donate, it’s really going to a good cause.”

Angelica Cortes, an Alachua County hazardous waste environmental specialist, collected donations of batteries, bulbs, and motor oils which Cortes says is important to get rid of to avoid them going to a landfill.

“Instead of landfilling something like a wood stain, we would bulk this in a 55-gallon drum and then send that out to an environmental authority,” Cortes said. “They take those items and then incinerate them which means burning them at such a high heat that there’s no impact to our airs, soil, or water."

Organizations like UF Surplus collected UF-owned property, UF Healthstreet received clothes, shoes, and toiletries donations, and Habitat for Humanity collected the household items.

Those who were not able to attend Spring Collection Day can donate items to the organizations.