USED MEDICAL EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES, EYEGLASSES AND HEARING AIDS ADDED TO MATERIALS ACCEPTED AT BATON ROUGE MONTHLY "RECYCLE ROUND UP"

The East Baton Rouge Recycling Office, Recycling Foundation and ExxonMobile ExC!TE are partnering with Come & Help, The Lions Club and the Louisiana School for the Deaf to add medical equipment and supplies, eyeglasses, and hearing aids to other materials collected for recycling at the monthly drop-off. The drop-off is held the third Saturday of each month from 8 a.m. until 12 p.m. at the Louisiana Department of Insurance Office of Receivership at 6945 Florida Blvd. on the corner of Florida and Donmoor. The new items will be collected on a regular basis beginning October of 2003.

"Refurbishing and reusing these materials will provide a valuable service to people in our community with medical, sight, and hearing needs, as well as divert valuable resources from our landfill, "according to Susan Hamilton, Director of Recycling for Baton Rouge.

Come & Help, a non-profit organization assisting people with disabilities in the Greater Baton Rouge area, will be accepting items such as wheelchairs, walkers, canes, exercise equipment, bath chairs, test kits for diabetes, respiratory equipment, and hospital beds.  Medical waste, needles, prescription medicine, and thermometers will not be accepted.  Please call Come & Help at 274.1511 with questions on acceptable materials. All donations are tax deductible.

"Come & Help" volunteers will refurbish the materials collected and redistribute to the community on an as-need basis, working with area home health care companies," states Andrea Fantacci, Director of Community Services for Come & Help. Interested parties should contact "Come & Help," she continued.

Recycling Foundation and ExxonMobile ExC!TE will continue to operate the regular drive-in drop-off for small businesses, apartment dwellers, and others who do not participate in the curbside recycling program.  Commodities accepted are the same as those collected in the EBR curbside recycling program. The sort is as follows:  all rigid items together (aluminum, cartons, glass, plastics#1 and #2, tin or steel cans), and all paper items together (newspaper, scrap paper, phone books, paperboard, and cardboard).

NO PAINT OR HAZARDOUS WASTES ARE ACCEPTED.  PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE ANY MATERIALS AT THIS SITE EXCEPT DURING DESIGNATED DROP OFF HOURS ON THE THIRD SATURDAY OF EACH MONTH.

The collection may be canceled due to rain. If it begins raining during the day, the collection will be canceled the remainder of the day.  Please call Citizens Service at 389-3090 for more information.