Hannula strives for a better world through recycling
Saddleback College’s athletic director Jerry Hannula has been recycling used phones and ink cartridges for exactly four years now.
He plans on recycling for as long as he can because he wants to help “change the world.”
It is a very simple concept, he gave them to recyclers to be doctored up, so they can be sold.
“I give them to a recycler and they gut them and make new cartridges out of them so they don’t go to waste,” Hannula said. “The phones go to a company that remakes them and gets them in working order. They use them for any type of crisis like floods, hurricanes, or anything where people need emergency contact.”
There are some good deals when it comes to purchasing the remade phones and cartridges.
“You can buy them through our system and it’s a buy one get one free deal,” Hannula said. “You get a good deal too.”
The Junkman has always been a very strong supporter of recycling, and a green and better world.
“I’m conscientious about recycling especially at home, I’m not giving them up to landfills with stuff that does not decompose,” Hannula said. “They could reuse them instead of just burying them.”
His intention behind this whole effort was to be conscious of the earth and people, but he didn’t mind making a little money from the cause.
“They do provide me with free shipping labels, and if I qualify, some of them pay me for it,” Hannula said. “A little bit of money goes into our foundation here at the Athletic Department.”
It doesn’t bring in much money, but it’s not the money that matters, it is the cause.
“Thirty to fifty dollars a year, I thought it would be a bigger fundraising effort but that’s not the main thing,” Hannula said. “The main thing is that people have them on their desks and are throwing cartridges away, and I figured what the heck, we can’t be throwing these things away when we can do something with them.”
Hannula plans to continue recycling old phones and cartridges, and he may start up some more foundations, so he can to make this world a better place.