Ecumenical Earth Day Extravaganza Eclipses E-Waste Estimates: Over 300 tons of electronic waste was turned in Saturday by thousands of residents during the second annual Earth Keeper Clean Sweep across Michigan's Upper Peninsula
(Marquette, Michigan) - Over 300 tons of old and broken computers, televisions, cell phones and other electronic waste was collected Saturday at dozens of drop off sites spanning the Upper Peninsula during the second annual Earth Keeper Clean Sweep, said event organizer Carl Lindquist, director of the Central Lake Superior Community Partnership.
"The Watershed Partnership would like to thank the 350-plus volunteers who helped collect hundreds of tons of electronic waste in just three hours," said Lindquist, director of the Central Lake Superior Watershed Partnership.
Despite scattered to numerous rain showers and temperatures in the 40s, thousands of U.P. residents arrived at 27 official collections sites with cars, vans, and pickup trucks full of a wide variety of electronic waste, commonly called "e-waste."
Horses pulling drays were used to transport the e-waste from hotels and businesses on Mackinac Island, and then sent by ferry to St. Ignace, and trucked to a nearby official site.
The annual clean sweep is sponsored by the Central Lake Superior Watershed Partnership, nine U.P. faith communities with 130,000 members, the non-profit Cedar Tree Institute and the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community.
"The US Environmental Protection Agency has recognized the Earth Keepers as one of the most effective pollution prevention initiatives in the Great Lakes states and today's e-waste collection confirms that," Lindquist said. "We're looking forward to working with all of the Earth Keepers on the next environmental project in communities across the Upper Peninsula."
The project involves the congregations of over 120 churches and temples representing nine faith communities - Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, United Methodist Church, Unitarian Universalist, Bahá'í, Jewish, and Zen Buddhist.
The Earth Keeper Clean Sweep project is primarily funded by a grant from the United States Environmental Protection Agency; and received grants from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, a Wisconsin-based (ecumenical non-profit) full service financial services company.
The exact amount of record-setting collection won't be known until Monday, but Lindquist said the 300 tons is a conservative estimate as most of the collection sites were pleasantly overwhelmed by the public response.
Lindquist added that the four semi-trailer trucks being used to transport the e-waste to a recycling facility will be augmented "by a fleet of trucks."
Earth Keeper Initiative co-founder Rev. Jon Magnuson said "this morning when the sun rose - the faith communities responded with a song and a prayer."
"It was a first act of a drama that is unfolding that will I believe change the relationship of the faith communities to the environment for generations to come," said Magnuson, the Lutheran campus pastor at Northern Michigan University.
"The literal amount of e-waste was beyond any of our expectations," said Rev. Magnuson, founder and director of the Cedar Tree Institute.
Dozens of student volunteers were also provided by the recently former Northern Michigan University Earth Keeper (NMU EK) student team and the elite Order of the Arrow from several Upper Peninsula Boy Scout troops. Other volunteers ranged in ages from 9 to 90 years old.
The NMU EK is forming chapters at three other U.P. universities - with a goal of 1,500 students by 2007, and has numerous of its own projects including the cleaning and protecting of tributaries that feed Lake Michigan and Lake Superior.
"This is a generation that is interested in the environment around us - we have a lot of energy and motivation because we look around us and we love this place and we want to protect it," said Jennifer Simula, NMU EK Student Team project director.
"Different ages and different backgrounds are coming together in one effort and it shows a lot can be accomplished when you have a common goal," said Simula, "This is a good kick off to show a couple people united together can really accomplish a lot."
Roman Catholic Diocese of Marquette Bishop Alexander K. Sample said he never "dreamed there would be this kind of response - it's wonderful - it's incredible - if you provide people with an opportunity to do something good with the environment they will respond."
Bishop Sample, who supervises 97 U.P. parishes and missions with 68,400 members, said it's important for Christians and non-Christians to work together because "there are plenty of things that separate us - but there are also efforts such as this that can unite us and we can come and work together despite our religious differences in a comon effort that is meaningful to all of us."
Lutheran Bishop Thomas A. Skrenes of the Northern Great Lakes Synod (NGLS) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) said the interfaith clean sweep is an example for other communities in the world because "there are a lot of things we have in common and one of those things is preserving and protecting our environment."
"It's been overwhelming," said Bishop Skrenes, the head of 91 U.P. Lutheran churches with 40,420 members, while volunteering at a the St. Joseph Catholic Church in Ishpeming. "It's amazing that God can even use junk to bring God's people together and serve the creation - it's a tremendous morning."
Jewish Earth Keeper team member Jacob Silver of Negaunee said the large public response "demonstrates that people, when informed, can work together on important ecological issues."
"There's no better proof of the fact that people working together have done significant thing this morning in preventing watershed pollution," said Silver, one of 70 members of Temple Beth Sholom in Ishpeming.
Zen Buddhist priest Tesshin Paul Lehmberg of Marquette said it's important for students and various faith communities to work together because "the world is shrinking hourly and we need to learn how to work together - there is just no choice."
"This is a great thing when you can get people together - to agree on something and work on it and get it done," said Rev. Tesshin Paul Lehmberg, Head Priest of the 15 member Lake Superior Zendo - a Marquette Zen Buddhist temple.
Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan (EDNM) Bishop James Kelsey said the interfaith clean sweep should be a pattern for other communities to start similar environmental projects "and come together and have a common cause and commitment to something that is of vital concern to all of us."
"People have had this e-waste gathering up in their garages and who knows where for years and this is a great opportunity to take care of our planet on this Earth Day and work on this together," said EDNM Bishop Kelsey, who oversees 27 Episcopal churches with 2,500 members in the U.P.
"I am most impressed that the faith communities have united to promote a common cause that serves humanity," said Dr. Rodney Clarken, Chair of the Local Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Marquette,
"This is historic and I hope it is a model that can be duplicated throughout the country and world where we often see faith communities arguing and even killing one another - we have here an example of spiritual leaders and their communities uniting," said Dr. Clarken, an NMU professor, adding Bahá'í has over 500 members in the U.P. and northern Wisconsin.
"We're delighted to be part of this great effort to clean up electronic waste," said Rev. Lawrence Jones, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Marquette. "Electronic gear seems to take on a life of its own and when it can be disposed of properly the world will be a better place.
Rev. Jones made the comments on behalf of Rev. Dave Van Dam, the Executive Presbyter at the Presbytery of Mackinac, who oversees 43 churches (7,200 members) in the northern Lower Peninsula, the U.P. (Except Gogebic County) and Florence, Wisconsin.
Marquette Grace United Methodist Church Pastor Charlie West said some of the computers and other e-waste "were covered with dust and dirt and had been stored away for a long time in basements and garages and now finally they have an environmentally- responsible way to get rid of it."
"We have got Buddhists from the Lake Superior Zendo helping us and we have enjoyed working together and it's been a very nice effort," said Rev. West, co-coordinator of the first clean sweep in 2005.
Gail Griffith, a retired chemistry professor and member of the Marquette Unitarian Universalist Congregation, said she "filled the back of our station wagon with more non-functional electronics than I thought we could possibly have had stashed in our house, and saw that others had the same experience.
"Trunks and trucks, filled with literally tons of e-waste were being unloaded at the church parking lot," said Griffith, a member of the Earth Keeper team. "It was an event that obviously needed to happen - thanks to the Earth Keeper team and our wonderful volunteers."
For the first time, the Sierra Club provided volunteers to staff drop-off sites on Earth Day.
"This is really a great opporunity to have cooperation between the faith-based groups and the environmental groups to help keep the earth clean and I am really glad that the Earth Keepers organized this and we're happy to help out ," said NMU biology professor Dr. John Rebers, the chair of the 441-member Central U.P. Group of the Sierra Club.
"I think this is a great model (for other communities) and it's really good that they made arrangements to have this e-waste recycled instead of going off to a landfill somewhere," Rebers said. "The overall process is something that would be really great to see other groups follow through on."
Earth Keeper team member Kyra Fillmore, a mother of two who volunteered at the Saint Louis the King Catholic Church drop off site in Harvey, said "one of the most important aspects of the Earth Keeper Initiative is our interfaith nature and bringing community together."
Fillmore, who related one of several U.P. incidents of people cannibalizing some of the e-waste being turned in, said one local resident who happened to be at church for wedding "was looking for special tubing and parts" from TVs and VCRs for his hobby building robots.
Barbara Gutzman, a Harvey resident who also dropped off e-waste, said she "was truly amazed at all that is being collected - this is a very good idea to recycle."
"This is an incredible project that has potential to drive together many people as a community which cares about our space," said Les Bek, a member of the St. Louis the King Church, who dropped off e-waste.
Phil Andersen, an NMU senior majoring in art and design who volunteered at the First Presbyterian Church in Escanaba said he is pleased with the large volume of e-waste turned in because "it is reassuring that it had not been disposed of in the woods and people had not just thrown it in the woods or ended up in a landfill."
"I think overall today's university students are very conscious of recycling - the younger generation has grown up with recycling - my dad talks about recycling was a new thing when he younger," said Andersen, the son of a Lutheran pastor.
The waste was being taken to an EPA-approved recyling facility named Technology Asset Disposal ( http://www.tadservices.com/ ) in downstate Livonia, MI.
Examples of e-waste are personal computers plus related hard-drives, keyboards, monitors and printers; plus cell phones, faxes, televisions, compact disc players and other common household entertainment-related items.
The 2005 clean sweep garnered about 46 tons of household poisons like pesticides, herbicides, mercury, car batteries and lead-based paints. More Household Hazardous Waste was collected in 2005 in only three hours than U.P.'s three county landfill hazardous waste collection sites gather in two years.
One of the landfill sites took in more HHW from the 2005 clean sweep than the it had received in the prior seven years.. The 2007 clean sweep may return to the HHW theme.
The 27 free drop-off sites - plus a half dozen remote unofficial sites like Mackinac Island - were open to the general public, church members, small businesses and schools.
For more information call: Carl Lindquist, Director of the Central Lake Superior Watershed Partnership, at 906-228-6095 - or Greg Peterson at 906-475-5068 or email: earthkeeper@charter.net.
