The Rotary Club of Saugatuck-Douglas (RCSD) plans to partner with the City of Saugatuck, the City of the Village of Douglas, and Saugatuck Township to offer residents a complete hazardous waste disposal service, free of charge from 9am to noon on May 1, 2021. The event will be held at the Saugatuck City Department of Public Works facility on Blue Star Highway. Residents of Saugatuck, Dougls, and Saugatuck Township only are allowed to participate.
Our tri-village community has lacked such services for over a decade, requiring residents to drive to Allegan, South Haven, or Holland and be charged substantial non-resident fees to dispose of household waste products that contain toxic materials. These barriers have suppressed overall participation in responsible waste disposal. A lot of such waste therefore ends up in our local landfills. A recent Community Needs Assessment survey (results attached) showed a very high demand for such local services and hinted at current practices of illegal or irresponsible disposal that eventually leaches into the Kalamazoo River, Lake Kalamazoo, the harbor, and Lake Michigan. This is an avoidable ecological problem that threatens our local economies, which rely on tourist traffic attracted to the area by our pristine and unique river-lake-dunes environment.
To address this issue, the Tri-Community Recycling Board, commissioned by the local governments of Saugatuck, Douglas, and Saugatuck Township, approached our Club with a request to help sponsor an annual Hazardous Waste Disposal Day on May 1, 2021 for our communities.
Rotary will sponsor the event with a commitment of at least $5000 and maybe more if we can secure a Rotary Foundation grant request. The event will raise awareness of several ways that residents can protect the fragile environment of our local area and responsibly recycle and/or dispose of their household hazardous waste free of charge, courtesy of the Rotary Club of Saugatuck-Douglas. This budget will allow up to 600 households to each responsibly dispose of hazardous waste for free, encouraging wide participation.
Now, as the community anticipates emerging from the worst effects of the pandemic this summer, other needs neglected necessarily during the COVID-19 outbreak are becoming more painfully obvious. One of those needs is to restore a long-deferred problem—safe and environmentally sound Hazardous Waste Disposal.
Sign your household up to drop off items. Reservations are required. Here’s the LINK.
