Bring It! 2015 a smashing success
The first truck, with an old TV and fridge in the back, arrived at Plant Watson on Saturday morning at 7 a.m. When the driver was told he’d have to wait an hour before he could drop them off, he said “no problem.”
He was the first car in line for the 2015 Harrison County household hazardous waste event, better known as Bring It! But he certainly wasn’t the last.
“We had 795 vehicles come through the parking lot today, and a lot of them were loaded down with debris,” Plant Watson Manager Kathy Russell said. “Traffic spilled out onto Cowan-Lorraine Road in both directions for the better part of five hours, but every driver was so thankful for what we were doing.”
More than 50 Mississippi Power volunteers collected hundreds of thousands of pounds of debris in the 20th year of this event. More than 220,000 pounds of paint were collected this year, putting the overall amount collected at more than 1.1 million pounds.
“It’s a staggering number and that alone proves how successful this event has been for two decades,” Mike Metz, Watson compliance specialist and program organizer, said. “We filled three dumpsters with paint cans in five hours today.”
Russell, who came to Plant Watson in February, said she was overwhelmed by the effort and ownership of this event by her team.
“They are doing this on their own time. They’re not being paid to do this,” Russell said. “To me, that speaks volumes about their commitment to this cause.”