With school being out and the primary election over, Catherine Redd, owner of SOMACYCLE, is conducting a free, community-wide recycling initiative, collecting plastic political and other types of plastic yard signs and donating them to be used by a local artist.
Redd seeks any “yard signs that are destined for the trash” and will be collecting them in bins at the Maplewood Hilton Branch Library, 1688 Springfield Avenue, from June 30 to July 3.
She will then give them to retired Columbia High School art teacher Kate Dodd, who creates large scale installations using upcycled materials like plastic water bottles and plastic yard signs.
After the November 2024 election, Redd said, she collected 635 plastic signs, which she took to be recycled, keeping them out of the landfill.
Redd founded SOMCYCLE, a private subscription recycling service in Maplewood, South Orange, Millburn and Short Hills, where for a monthly fee, she picks up all kinds of things that don’t get taken in municipal recycling programs.
