The Middletown Recycling Event is fast approaching! Start to collect items that can be recycled or re-used and take them to our fall recycling event on Saturday, October 19^th from 9am - Noon which is also the Town’s next bulk trash day. (Instead of putting metals objects out for the bulk trash, please consider bringing them to the municipal center parking lot for recycling.) Items that will be collected in the parking lot behind the Middletown Municipal Building include used clothing and textiles, metals, paint cans ($5 each), lithium-ion batteries and electronics. See below for the details.

Used clothing – collected by Helpsy: https://www.helpsy.co/

It's hard to believe but over 85% of clothes wind up in the trash!  It's the norm to recycle plastics, glass, metal and paper but sadly clothes, shoes, and accessories have long been ignored. In fact, 10% of our landfills are textiles. That's 100 pounds per person, per year. HELPSY is a for-profit corporation with an environmental mission to radically change the way people think about clothing recycling. They make reusing and recycling your clothes and shoes more convenient and easier than ever.

Metals – collected by Knights of Columbus member, Bill Traub

The money collected from the sale of the metal is distributed to local charities and the funding is primarily used by the Middletown Ministerium to pay for supplies used for the Community Days of Service to area residents who are in need of repairs to their homes and properties.

Paint cans – collected by Yuck Old Paint: https://yuckoldpaint.com/

Good, reusable paint is distributed to international humanitarian construction projects, stateside theater groups and local licensed contractors. Paint that is not usable is appropriately processed for proper legal disposal per state regulations so that it is no longer a threat to the water and soil tables. The charge per paint can is $5/each.

Electronics– collected by The Buddy Project: https://www.thebuddyproject.org/

The Buddy Project will only take the following this fall:  desktops working or non-working, laptops working or non-working, printers, game systems and cell phones. All computer hard drives are wiped to DoD standards or destroyed, and proof of destruction is offered as well as a tax deduction. The organization is headquartered in Frederick and is dedicated to helping disabled and low-income individuals. Their service provides refurbished computers to those who are intellectually and developmentally disabled, and the computers are set up specifically for those clients.

Lithium-ion batteries– collected by Redwood Materials: https://www.redwoodmaterials.com/

Why recycle lithium-ion batteries?

Climate change is creating a global imperative to electrify and accelerate the reduction of fossil fuels. But electrification at scale demands many more energy efficient batteries than are currently produced.

By building a large-scale li-ion recycling operation in the US, Redwood Materials plans to: 

• Meet increased demand for batteries across industries (clean energy, transportation, consumer electronics, etc.)
• Decrease the battery industry s reliance on mining 
• Localize a supply chain that currently stretches tens of thousands of nautical miles
• Build a thriving US-based battery materials industry