Annabel Fontaine shows off her ORAU Earth Day event T-shirt; the first 75 employees to participate in this event received one of these shirts. (Submitted photos)

For the fifth year in a row, Oak Ridge Associated Universities coordinated an annual event in conjunction with Earth Day to encourage ORAU’s 1,100 employees to bring in unwanted items from home to recycle, a press release said.

As part of this year’s two-day event on April 22-23, ORAU accepted a total of almost 10,000 pounds of technotrash (computers, related accessories, or other electronic items), paper for secure shredding, unwanted medicine as part of Operation Medicine Cabinet in collaboration with the Allies for Substance Abuse Prevention and the Oak Ridge Police Department, and 414 pairs of “gently used” shoes to donate to those in need through the Soles4Souls nonprofit organization, the release said.

“ORAU’s Earth Day event has grown each year since its start in 2010 as many employees use it as a spring cleaning ritual; this event not only helps the environment by recycling unwanted items and those in need with the donation of shoes, it keeps unwanted medicine out of the hands of children or drug abusers with Operation Medicine Cabinet, which was a new element to this year’s event,” said Tom Wantland, ORAU’s director of Environment, Safety, and Health. “Employee feedback shows that employees want to recycle, because it is the right thing to do; as an added incentive, ORAU provides T-shirts to the first 75 employees who participate in the event.” [Read more…]