Lone Star College-CyFair’s Technology Society students know first-hand that technology is always changing, but that recycling and giving back to the community never goes out of style.
A recent Electronics Recycle Drive collected more than 2,300 lbs in televisions, computers, cell phones and more in just a month and a half, said Venancio Ybarra, Technology Society student club sponsor.
“The Electronics Recycle Drive was held to give students, employees and community members a place to recycle their used electronics in a manner that would best help the community and the environment,” he said. “It was initially scheduled for the end of the Fall 2009 semester; however it was postponed until the beginning of the Spring 2010 semester so that any electronics items that would be ‘phased out’ due to the Christmas holiday could be recycled.”
Taking the lead on this Jan. 4 through Feb. 12 initiative were Technology Society members Qutbuddin Tayabali, president, Erick Hernandez, historian, Mark Weisner, treasurer and Freddie Salinas, member. It was decided the beneficiary of the spring semester drive would be the area Goodwill.
“We found out that Goodwill sells functional items, which gives their organization revenue to run their operation,” said Ybarra. “Non-functioning items would be recycled in an environmental-friendly manner.”
Collection bins were placed at the Barker Cypress campus as well as LSC-Fairbanks Center for six weeks. The students helped with weekly bin collection and measurement of recycled items. Ybarra said once the collection room on campus was near capacity, the students delivered recycled items to the area Goodwill, located at FM 529 and Queenston Road.
In addition to the six-week electronics recycling effort, LSC-CyFair’s Technology Society was invited to provide a one-day drive as part of the annual LSC system-wide conference day held Feb. 18 this year at LSC-Tomball.
While the campus effort brought in more than 1,000 lbs of recyclable items, the one-day system-wide effort brought in 1,300 lbs. more.
“This was the first Electronics Recycle Drive that the Technology Society has held. We never anticipated recycling 2,300 lbs of electronics in one and half months,” said Ybarra. “And because of this success, we plan to hold one each fall and spring semester.”
For information on the Technology Society, contact Ybarra at 281.290.3922 or go to Lone Star.edu.