We’ve all been there – the dreaded garage clean-out.  The lovely time when you dredge up a 42-pound CRT from 1997, the after-college futon you thought you donated two years ago and some crusted paint cans you (responsibly) did not throw away but never quite made it to the hazardous waste center. 

Over the last twenty years, Toyota has helped associates, team members and surrounding communities avoid this drama by hosting regular e-waste, hazardous waste and household good collections.

How much waste didn’t land in landfills?  Since 1994, Toyota has collected 1,580,519 pounds or 790 short tons.  

That’s equal to 519 Prius vehicles or 130 elephants or 10 space shuttles. Talk about tons of stuff!

And what became of the nearly 1.6 million pounds of materials pulled out of the garage and kept out of the garbage?   All reusable items were donated and the rest recycled or disposed of, in the case of hazardous waste, properly. 

And saving household chemicals and electronics from the garbage doesn’t just recover materials and save landfill space, it also keeps some nasty stuff out of the environment (what’s in that lava lamp anyway?).

Toyota Motor Sales headquarters campus in Torrance, Calif., holds two events annually, for both associates and members of the Torrance community, to collect e-waste and household items.  Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky holds supeRecycling day biannually for team members and local residents to collect e-waste and hazardous waste items.  Toyota Canada headquarters in Toronto holds an annual associate e-waste and household goods drive.