Keep Evangeline Beautiful recycles nearly a ton of old electronics

By: TONY MARKS
Associate Editor

The inaugural parish wide electronics recycling project sponsored by “Keep Evangeline Beautiful” resulted in close to a ton of items being collected that will be kept out of landfills. Items include computers, printers, key boards, cordless phones, radios, and other miscellaneous devices.
The project was held in cooperation with the mayors of Evangeline’s six municipalities and parish residents.
Becky Buller, president of “Keep Evangeline Beautiful,” called the project “a huge success” and stated that the organization is grateful to parish mayors Mark Denette of Basile; Jackie Thomas of Chataignier; Ricky Fontenot of Mamou; Quint West of Pine Prairie; Heather Cloud of Turkey Creek; and Jennifer Vidrine of Ville Platte, for their cooperation.
Buller, who personally visited with each mayor to request project support, said “each of (the mayors) helped to inform his/her community about the project and encouraged citizens to bring in unused equipment to their respective community drop off locations. Each municipality then brought donated items to the central pickup point, Ville Platte City Hall.”
Capital Area Corporate Recycling Council (CACRC) representative Jason Quiett then collected the equipment Thursday. He accepted four large pallets of donated items from parish residents.
According to the secretary of “Keep Evangeline Beautiful” Sharon Fontenot, “The items will be recycled by the Baton Rouge nonprofit organization CACRC, which is an award-winning accredited e-scrap refurbisher and recycler. CACRC is committed to both e-scrap reduction by decreasing the stream to landfills and to providing refurbished computers and equipment for sale. The organization accomplishes this by electronic refurbishment and recycling, including collection, sorting, dismantling, refurbishing, data wiping, donations, and sales at reduced prices to schools, veterans, seniors, low income families and other non-profit organizations. It is also distributing very low cost laptops and desktops to those affected by the Historic Flood of 2016.”
“Thanks are also extended to the City of Ville Platte for serving as the central collection site and to city employees, especially Vickie Allemon and Rod LaFleur, for their assistance with the project,” Fontenot continued. “Very special thanks go to The Ville Platte Gazette and KVPI radio for their efforts.”