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By LEANORA MINAI; Times Leader Staff Writer
Monday, January 04, 1993 Page:
WILKES-BARRE — At the end of every year, people wonder what to do with
that inch thick, 454-page book that weighs 2.3 pounds.
Starting Monday, Wilkes-Barre area residents can take their outdated
telephone books to one of eight Wilkes-Barre schools for recycling.
“It’s better to recycle them than have them land in a landfill,” said Beth
Kerpovich, solid waste technician for Luzerne County. “It’s another step we
can take to help the environment.”
The program, which is the first of its kind in the county, is sponsored by
the county, Bell of Pennsylvania and J.P. Mascaro and Sons Inc., a recycling
plant in Nanticoke.
“There was no place they could take them, so they were just throwing them
in the garbage,” said Tim Shaw, plant manager for Mascaro, of the books.
The program officially kicked off Dec. 14 when phone books were collected
in Kingston, Forty Fort and Plymouth. After the Wilkes-Barre area collection,
the program will start in Dallas area Jan. 11-15.
Shaw expects to collect about 275,000 phone books from all the sites.
The books will be treated at the Nanticoke plant, then recycled at another
location and sold by Mascaro for use in animal bedding, insulation and new
telephone books.
“It’s pulling more things out of your landfills,” Shaw said. “It’s a paper
they can use over again.”
Wilkes-Barre area residents can drop off their telephone books in the
parking lots of the following schools:
Dodson Elementary, 80 Jones St.
Dan Flood Elementary, 565 N. Washington St.
Heights Elementary, 1 S. Sherman St.
Kistler Elementary, 301 Old River Road
Plains Junior High, West Carey Street.
Coughlin High School, 80 N. Washington St.
GAR High School, Grant and Lehigh streets.
Meyers High School, 341 Carey Ave.
Businesses can continue to take their old directories to Wyoming Valley
Recycling, 871 East Main St. in Nanticoke.
For additional information, contact the Luzerne County Solid Waste
Management office, 820-6300 cq .