News & Events
The October 22, Electronic Waste Collection Event was a success! Thanks to all who participated in the event, 11,514 pounds of electronics were diverted from landfills and taken by Surplus Exchange (www.surplusexchange.org/) to either be refurbished for reuse or recycled through environmentally and socially responsible processes.
The event was sponsored by the Cass County Sustainability Committee in partnership with Surplus Exchange and the Family Center at the Family Center parking lot in Harrisonville.
The breakdown of the total by product is:
TVs (on Pallets) 4748 pounds
PCs 2423
Printers 1301
Misc. 445
Microwave 656
CRT monitor 1343
single large TVs 598
Be sure to monitor this website for information on the fall 2012 Electronic Waste Collection Event!
The local area 2011 Household Hazardous Waste events schedule can be viewed here. Unfortunately Cass County was unable to afford to participate this year so people living in unincorporated parts of the county who want to recycle hazardous waste will not be able to participate in the HHW events. Household hazardous waste can be taken to the Lee's Summit facility and disposed of for a fee. For information about alternate ways you can safely dispose of antifreeze, batteries, oil, and latex paint, please call 816-701-8226. If your city paid to participate then you can take your household hazardous waste to any of the local events (click here for a list of paricipating cities).
Cass County Sustainability Committee (CCSC) membership is open to anyone (citizen, business, elected official, student, etc) who supports the mission of the CCSC and wishes to participate in furthering its goals. Click here to view the membership application. If you are unable to view the form then you probably don't have a PDF viewer. A free copy of Adobe Reader (PDF viewer) is available for download here (any other software on that download page can be "unchecked" to insure you don't install anything else you may not want).
Click here to read the impressive statistics for 2010.
Check out the details at this link.
Pleasant Hill Intermediate School Completes Rain Garden
On October 8, an enthusiastic group of Intermediate School students stayed after school to put the finishing touches to their rain garden. They completed the planting, spread additional mulch and installed a brick edging with the assistance of a principal, teacher, parent and members of the Cass County Sustainability Committee (CCSC). Participating in the project were students Rachel Denney, Michael Denney, Mackenzie Beaman, Kylie Mullin-Struzick, Wyatt Clayton, Mackenzie Robinson, Kaycee Mullin-Struzick, Fiona Bradhurst, Jerod Rottinghaus, Shawn Gallagher, Victoria Combs, Jordan Rottinghaus, Principal Chandra Arbuckle, teacher Crystal Parson, parent Ronda Bradhurst and CCSC members Bob and Doris Sherrick.
Work on the rain garden project began at the end of May when the City of Pleasant Hill Public Works Department prepared the site, and other students, teachers, parents, and members of the CCSC and the South Grand River Watershed Alliance arranged plants, and did the initial planting and mulching.
This rain garden will serve as a landscape feature for students at the Intermediate School, as well as for the community, to learn how rain gardens function to benefit water quality while also providing habitat that butterflies, birds and other species depend on.
Rain gardens are simply shallow, scooped out areas placed in the path of stormwater runoff from impervious surfaces such as roofs and parking lots. Their purpose is to slow and retain the runoff temporarily in the garden where the plants will serve to filter out nonpoint source pollutants and infiltrate the waters into the groundwater. This will keep more rain where it falls instead of rushing it, along with all the contamination it carries, through a stormwater drain system into a stream.
The plants in the Intermediate School rain garden are native to Missouri and are adapted for survival in both wet and dry conditions. The use of native plants is important because they have adapted to the local climate and soils over thousands of years, have exceptionally long root systems and are hardy. The extensive roots of native plants act as nature’s water purifiers by facilitating the movement of water deep into the soil. In contrast, the turf grasses of typical lawns have very shallow root systems and do little to infiltrate stormwater and filter out pollutants.
This rain garden project was made possible through grant funding awarded the Cass County Sustainability Committee by the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) to benefit water quality by providing a landscape feature that addresses nonpoint source pollution and to serve as an educational feature for the students and the community.
Ripple Glass project (rippleglasskc.com) provides five locations where you can recycle clear, brown and/or green glass containers in Cass County. Just look for the purple bin open 24/7 at one of the following locations:
Raymore
Cosentino's Price Chopper — 900 W Foxwood Drive, in the Raymore Market Center. The purple bin is located in the parking lot.
Harrisonville
Cass County Elks Lodge — 2402 N 291 Hwy, just north of Wal-Mart. Look for the purple bin.
Peculiar
Peculiar United Methodist Church — just north of the Ray-Pec Freshman Center recycling spot. The address is 20521 S. School Road. The purple bin is located in the southeast corner of the parking lot.
Pleasant Hill
The purple bin is at the Pleasant Hill Recycling Center, Corner of Taylor Street & Pine Street, near the Police Station in old downtown Pleasant Hill.
Belton
Parking lot behind the City Hall Annex Building, 520 Main Street—Access from Second Street. Look for the purple bin.
Please click here to see information about Missouri Department of Natural Resources mercury drop off sites in Kansas City and northwest Missouri.
