Ciji Mitrisin inspires recycling through music
On Saturday, Ciji Mitrisin will help pull off a zero-waste block party in Des Moines' East Village.
The spring cleaning event is billed as the Recycle Revolution. You can bring clothing, books, batteries, cellphones and other difficult-to-recycle items. Mitrisin and her team will collect them for free and put them into the recycling system. A paid concert will take place at Wooly's later in the evening.
Music and recycling go well together, said Mitrisin, 30, the founder of RecycleMe Iowa. "I feel like people can get inspired by music and art. That's how you inspire people to make a change," she said.
The Des Moines Register recently caught up with Mitrisin:
Q.What's the event about Saturday?
A. Our mission is to educate and inspire the community about recycling, reducing and reusing while celebrating Earth Day and the arrival of spring.
Q. What does RecycleMe Iowa do on a day-to-day basis?
A. We cater to businesses and apartment tenants and we specialize in zero-waste events. I founded the company in 2010 to fill a void in recycling services that were available to apartment dwellers.
For a small fee, we collect recyclables from apartments. We also help companies implement more sustainable practices.
Q. How do you organize a zero-waste event?
A. We work with event organizers so they can purchase environmentally friendly items. All of our food and drink vendors during the day use compostable and recyclable materials. We'll recycle and compost items at our zero-waste stations.
Around 600 people came to our first event a few years ago. In total, we had one small bag of trash. We diverted 96 to 97 percent of waste.
In order to control the outgoing waste, you have to control the incoming waste. So usually vendors are the ones that bring in the incoming waste. So, we obviously have a no-Styrofoam rule.
Q. What will you be collecting Saturday?
A. People can bring hard-to-recycle items: cellphones, batteries, furniture, clothing, books. Goodwill Industries of Central Iowa and A-Tec Recycling will be on hand to take the items. It will be fun, too. For example, we're going to have a spin art station where we use recycled paint.
The concert, with acts including Dustin Smith and the Sunday Silos, River Glen and the James Biehn Band, is just kind of a fun way to end it. We'll be showing Des Moines that you can throw an event, you can have a good time, you can show awareness, and you don't have to create a lot of waste.
Q.Share a little bit more about how RecycleMe Iowa started?
A. I was living in an apartment and it was a pain to recycle. There were no real options. There was like one, maybe two drop-off sites for people in apartments. There was a business called Recycle Pal from Omaha, and I actually wanted to open up a franchise, but they never called me back, so a group of my friends got together — one person built a website, another person helped write a grant.
Q. Have you always been into recycling?
A. My large extended family was always handing things down. My dad owns a junkyard, so I grew up on a junkyard. I like to joke when I give speeches that I didn't realize my recycling career started when my brother and I went around to all the junk cars to collect all the cans out.
CIJI MITRISIN
AGE: 30.
GREW UP: Oskaloosa.
LIVES NOW: Des Moines.
EDUCATION: Graduated from the University of Northern of Iowa.
WORK: Chief recycling officer at RecycleMe Iowa 118 S.E. Fourth St., No. 103, Des Moines.
FUN FACT: Traveled in New Zealand after college.
THE EVENT: The Recycle Revolution takes place Saturday in Des Moines' East Village. Bring clothing, books, batteries, cellphones and other difficult-to-recycle items to a family-friendly block party. The block party takes place from noon to 6 p.m. A paid concert will begin at 6 p.m. at Wooly's, 504 E. Locust St. Tickets range from $15 to $50. For more information, go to www.recycle-revolution.com.