Tribune/Dan McGee - The new year brings recycling to the area. AT&T ended its telephone book recycling on Dec. 31 while Christmas tree recycling continues into this week. At the Shadow Mountain Park collection site, Mickey Rivera adds another used tree to the pile. On Wednesday the trees will be shredded and the chips used for area landscaping projects.
Starting Dec. 26, KTMB began collecting Christmas trees in an effort to keep them out of landfills while contributing to community projects.
With the help of Sparks Parks and Recreation, as well as numerous forestry programs, last year’s project collected more than 9,000 Christmas trees. These trees were made into mulch and used to prevent soil erosion and weed growth along the Truckee River and throughout the community.
“So far this year we have collected more than 1,000 trees,” KTMB executive director Christi Cakiroglu said. “Shadow Mountain sports complex has collected the most trees at this point and things are looking promising.”
Reno drop-off locations include Bartley Ranch and Rancho San Rafael regional parks in Reno and Shadow Mountain Sports Complex in Sparks. These locations will accept trees between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. through Sunday.
Alongside their Christmas tree recycling program, this year marks KTMB’s 18th annual phone book recycling effort, which gives citizens the opportunity to recycle outdated yellow pages.
With the help of Scolari’s, AT&T Real Yellow Pages and Waste Management, last year’s project collected 120 tons of phone books, which were made into new phone books for other communities.
Although final numbers have not been calculated, KTMB members are optimistic about this year’s event which took place from Nov. 24 to Dec. 31.
“We have gotten a really good response from the community,” Cakiroglu said. “It’s looking like we will do even better this year than last.”
Phone book drop-off sites were located throughout the Sparks community, from Sparks City Hall to the Sparks Marina. However, according to Cakiroglu, Sparks Parks and Recreation and Scolari’s were generally the most successful.
“Although the phone book recycling program has ended, we want people to know they can still recycle their phone books year-round,” Cakiroglu said. “They recycle them curbside by setting the books on top of their other recyclable things.”
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