Every day people throw out an average of 4.3 pounds of trash.From the Mt. Pleasant Community Page there are 25,946 people who live in the city and there are 19,000 students at CMU for about nine months per year. This becomes 40,200 full-time residents, each throwing out 30,790 tons per year!

About 25% of discarded waste is recycled. This represents about 7,700 tons per year leaving 23,000 tons for land fill.

Land fill is forever. Heavy metals find their way to the aquifer, our precious supply of potable water. Chemical reactions cause gases that escape to the atmosphere. The materials there are depleting raw materials.

If you and everyone in town could increase recycling to a third of your trash, recycled tonnage increases to over 10,000 tons and land fill decreases to 20,500 tons per year!

Mt. Pleasant will conduct “Trade Your Treasures” on September 11 and 12. Items placed at curbside will be listed on the City website and cable television. Call in your list of items at 779-5401. Others seeing the list can pick them up. You must remove untaken items on September 13.

Large item pick up (no more than 50 pounds per item) will occur on September 17. Tags for these items can be purchased for $10/item for items without Freon and $35 for items containing Freon. You can buy tags at the Division of Public Works 1303 N. Franklin, or at City Hall, 320 W. Broadway. Fees must be paid by 4:30 pm on September 17. Pick up the brochure Residential Large Item Collection Program for complete instructions.