Battery Center sparks massive recycling
ETR Staff Report
Interstate All Battery Center® of Longview—long known as East Texas’ most reliable source of power—turned an ordinary weekend into something special when it hosted its first-ever community recycling event. By the time the last car pulled away, more than 7,000 pounds of hard-to-dispose-of items had been collected, sorted, and kept out of local landfills.
At the center of it all stood Store Manager Doug Roberts. Recently invited to serve on the Longview Board of Directors, Roberts greeted neighbors with a grin as they pulled up with old batteries, boxes of paper, and other items they weren’t quite sure how to get rid of.
“Getting rid of this stuff safely can be tricky,” he admitted. “We’re just glad to help keep it off our streets and out of our alleyways. If we make recycling easy, maybe folks won’t feel tempted to just toss things in the trash.”
By the end of the day, the numbers told a remarkable story. The event gathered 5,440 pounds of shredded and recycled paper, 573 books donated by the Longview Public Library, and a mountain of used batteries—1,018 pounds of SLI, 28 pounds of SLA, 64 pounds of alkalines, and 9 pounds of lithium. The City of Longview added 460 pounds of recycled cardboard. Best of all, the community donated 377 non-perishable food items for Longview Community Ministries. It was, by every measure, a successful first run.
Of course, powering the community is nothing new for Interstate All Battery Center of Longview. The store carries everything from car and truck batteries to watch batteries, RV and marine power, motorcycle batteries, golf cart batteries, lawn equipment power, and specialty items like hearing aid and alarm system batteries. As one of 170 Interstate All Battery Centers across the country, the Longview location also provides a free five-minute car battery test, curbside service, professional installation, device and tool rebuilds, and—fittingly—battery recycling.
On this day, though, it wasn’t just about batteries. It was about neighbors helping neighbors, and a local store proving once again that power comes in many forms—including community.
