A Message from Chapter Ike Ray Powell
On a beautiful Saturday morning on the 11th of April, Chaper Board Member Mike Lane and I showed up at the Recycling Center off Carolina Road to help Susan and Marc Davis stack tires and collect batteries at the scheduled SCCC (Suffolk Clean Community Commission) Recycling event.
Altogether we collected 785 tires and over a dozen lead-acid batteries. The tire recycling station is just one of several that receive many types of recycled materials, including paper to be shredded, scrap metal, household goods, batteries, etc. These recycle events are scheduled multiple times during the year by the SCCC and are announced in our monthly chapter newsletters and in our online website calendar.
But my favorite station at which to volunteer is the tire recycling station. Now, this station is not for the faint of heart, since it requires both strength, and stamina: tires are very heavy, must be stacked five-high, and are dropped off in huge quantities by the general public at very rapid intervals via a somewhat steady stream of panel van trucks, utility trailers, car trunks, and pickup beds. Frequently the tires when bounced around slosh nasty water on one’s clothes, and heavy gloves are needed to avoid snags/cuts from frayed steel belts poking through rubber treads.
Over the decades, this type of work takes a toll on one’s muscles and joints, particularly in the back and shoulders. Each time I participate in such an event I ask myself, “Self, why do I keep volunteering to do this?” You can find the answer to this riddle in the smiling faces you see in the photos below. I invite you to come on out to a future tire recycling event and volunteer to help us stack tires! — Ray
Marc Davis
Mike Lane
Susan Davis (and Mike Davis, no relation)
