Turn back your clocks…or just turn them in.

Daylight Savings Clean Up and Green Up, a free community-wide recycle, repurpose and reuse event put on by Michigan Green Consortium, will be held from 9am until 3pm on Sunday, November 4, 2012 on the grounds of American Waste’s facility at 280 Hughes Drive in Traverse City. The event encourages residents to use the hour gained from the time change to participate, personally, in helping to preserve the environment. Held twice each year the morning following the time change, this event encourages local area residents to bring difficult-to-recycle items, items that have salvageable components or materials, and items that can be repurposed or reused to one central location for collection.

The list of items that will be accepted is broad-ranged from plastics and paper to wine bottles and pumpkins; from bubble wrap to wrought iron; from lawn mower and edgers to Styrofoam and plastic grocery bags. More than a dozen businesses will be on-site accepting a variety of difficult-to-recycle items. For a comprehensive list of what is acceptable and the sponsor partner that will accept it, please consult our event website, www.cleanupgreenup.com.

In accordance with energy programs that are already in place, three area utility companies,  Consumers Energy, Cherryland Electric Cooperative and Traverse City Light & Power, will be offering their customers rebates or credits for bringing in various appliances that are now deemed inefficient.  Consumers Energy will offer a $50.00 rebate to their customers for refrigerators and freezers, sized 10 – 30 cubic feet, and a $15.00 rebate for air conditioners and dehumidifiers brought to the event. Cherryland Electric Cooperative customers are offered a one-day opportunity to receive $100.00 for each refrigerator or freezer manufactured prior to 2001, and $30.00 for each air conditioner and dehumidifier that are brought to the event.   Traverse City Light and Power customers can receive $60.00 for a full-size refrigerator or freezer and $15.00 for air conditioners and dehumidifiers that are turned in.  Appliances in these programs don’t have to work but they must power up in order to be eligible for the rebates.  Customers should bring copies of their bills to qualify.

This is truly a community-wide effort to reduce the amount of trash in landfills and reuse materials that can be given new life through recycling, artwork, and environmentally safe practices.
The Michigan Green Consortium has quickly achieved notoriety for its recycling efforts and was named Recycle Smart Business of the Year in 2011.  Established in 2008, Michigan Green Consortium is a 501c3 not for profit organization. Its mission is to foster the general knowledge of sustainable practices and to promote the application of sound environmental stewardship through educational workshops, seminars, monthly networking events, and community-wide events designed to lessen the burden on government.

To learn out more about Michigan Green Consortium and their Daylight Savings Clean Up and Green Up event, visit the event website at www.cleanupgreenup.com or Michigan Green Consortium’s website at www.mgconline.org, or call (231) 947-1688.