What a day September 16 was! The Fallbrook community-wide Clean Up/Recycling Day brought out hundreds of Fallbrook families and individuals who wanted to recycle their old computers, dispose of their old tires or shred long-saved personal papers.

The downtown portion of the event brought in 450 cars to the E-waste recycling area, sponsored by Bill Cox of Oceanside’s 1-800-GOT-JUNK? That area was so ably manned by the Senior Volunteers from the Sheriff’s Department and other community organization volunteers that the whole process went like clockwork. Those cars, at times lined up two abreast all down Fig Street, dropped off 40,560 pounds of electrical equipment — 18.5 tons! All those items ended up in large cardboard containers which were then moved by forklift into two huge semi-truck trailers, filling them to the brim!

Another 78 cars pulled up to the paper-shredding truck, provided by Shred-It of Vista and manned by Shred-It’s Jaime Connell and Bob Leonard of the Fallbrook Chamber. The huge shredding machine disposed of 4,760 pounds of paper.

Fallbrook High School was the site for tire recycling, manned by the Department of Public Works, County of San Diego County, and headed up by Jen Winfry, Recycling Specialist. The tire event attracted 150 households and cars and collected 1,204 tires, more than double Advertisement

[ Chatton and Associates ] the quantity of any prior tire event in Fallbrook. The tires ended up in four 40-yard roll-off bins, jammed to overflowing.

All the sponsors of these recycling events were delighted with the outcome and expressed their gratitude for the support of local volunteers who helped make the day run so smoothly, and also to all the residents who took advantage of this recycling opportunity.

Also part of the Clean Up Day, of course, was the actual clean up on Fallbrook’s streets and illegal dump sites, under the sponsorship of I Love a Clean San Diego and San Diego Coastkeeper. Local streets were assigned to various community organizations who had volunteered to pick up litter, and the large items from illegal dumpsites were hauled out, loaded and transported by truly dedicated volunteers. Some of the heaviest lifting of the day was done by Roy Costello of Costello’s Auto Repair, Bob Dunn of Fallbrook Rotary, Monty and Joan Voigt and Jackie Heyneman; these folks loaded sofas, refrigerators and other large pieces of furniture from illegal dumpsites into their trucks and brought them to the operations center. What dedication!

All in all, it was a fabulous community event. The gratitude of all the coordinating agencies goes to the multitude of volunteers who made the day possible.