Sears Auto Center Sponsors Resurfacings of Three Torrance Elementary School Playgrounds
6 December 1999
Sears Auto Center Sponsors Resurfacings of Three Torrance Elementary School Playgrounds
Local Children Learn About Recycling
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 6 -- Today, more than 500 students at
Arnold Elementary School in Torrance will learn first-hand the benefits of
recycling as Sears Auto Center and the County of Los Angeles help make their
school's playground a more safe, comfortable and environmentally friendly
place to play.
Sears Auto Center donated 10,000 pounds of recycled rubber surfacing
products to the Torrance Unified School District. The donation rewards the
community for its efforts to rid Torrance of the hundreds of scrap tires that
were collected during the county's Tire Amnesty Day, which was also sponsored
by Sears and the County of Los Angeles last month.
To complement the initiative, elementary school classes throughout
Torrance will be focusing on environmental protection and recycling during the
next several weeks.
"We welcome Sears and the County's support in resurfacing the Torrance
school playgrounds," said Mayor Dee Hardison. "It shows in a very tangible
way that the public and private sector can work together to improve the
communities in which they operate. In this instance, Sears and the County
volunteers are creating a more safe and comfortable play area for Torrance
children while teaching them a valuable lesson about recycling and the
environment."
"Sears Auto Center is proud of our role in collecting scrap tires and
recycling them for use as playground surfaces here in Torrance," said
Bob Bewernick, Los Angeles district manager for Sears. "By hosting the Tire
Amnesty Day and recycling the collected scrap tires we aim to turn a negative
into a positive in a community where many of our employees and customers live
and work, and where their children attend school."
Students from Arnold Elementary, located at 4100 227th St. in Torrance,
will team up with Mayor Hardison, volunteers from the Sears Auto Center at the
Del Amo Fashion Center in Torrance, Los Angeles County Department of Public
Works and Recwest Outdoor Product to celebrate the grand opening of their
school's playground constructed from a pour-in-place compound made from
recycled tires.
Later this week, two additional Torrance school playgrounds -- Edison
Elementary School, 3800 182nd St., and Wood Elementary School, 2250 235th St.
-- will also receive resurfaced playgrounds provided by Sears Auto Center.
The playground resurfacing is part of Sears Auto Centers nationwide
R.O.T.A.T.E. (Recycling Old Tires Aids the Environment) initiative which helps
to raise awareness of the wide variety of uses for recycled tires and
encourage tire recycling.
Over the last two years, Sears R.O.T.A.T.E. has brought successful tire
collection and community enhancement projects to a number of cities across the
country, including Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Detroit and
Minneapolis. To date, more than 30,000 tires have been collected.
On Nov. 13, Sears partnered with Los Angeles County Department of Public
Woty's first Tire Amnesty Day at the Del Amo Fashion
Center Mall in Torrance during which hundreds of scrap tires were collected.
Following the event, the scrap tires were transported to American Tire
Disposal for cleaning, shredding and processing into a variety of recycled
rubber products including material for basketball and tennis courts, mats for
the disabled and roofing compounds as well as the playground surface materials
for the Torrance schools.
"Public-private initiatives such as last month's Tire Amnesty Day are
unique in that community members are rewarded with both cleaner neighborhoods
and improved playgrounds while minimizing costs to local communities," said
Shari Afshari, of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works. "We feel
this effort will help demonstrate the value of properly recycling old tires
and have an impact in beautifying Torrance as well as surrounding
communities."
The Scrap Tire Management Council estimates the United States generates
about 270 million scrap tires annually and has approximately 850 million scrap
tires in stockpiles, posing serious environmental and safety hazards. Tires
are a breeding ground for mosquitoes and other pests and create hazardous
emission problems if burned in open air.
In addition to playgrounds, widespread applications for recycled rubber
throughout the United States include: tree mulch, ramps for the disabled,
running tracks, basketball courts, horse tracks, bike paths, roofing
compounds, driveway sealant, truck bed liners, mail box posts, garden hoses,
computer mouse pads, car parts, cow mats and hockey pucks.
Sears, Roebuck and Co., Hoffman Estates, Ill., is a leading U.S. retailer
of apparel, home and automotive products and services with annual revenue of
more than $41 billion. The company serves families throughout the country
through 850 full-line department stores and more than 2,100 specialized retail
locations nationwide. Within the mix of retail outlets, there are almost 800
Sears Auto Centers that provide name-brand and private-label tires, batteries
and related services including alignments, brakes, front-end repairs, shocks
and struts. For more information about Sears, visit the Sears Web site:
http://www.sears.com .
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Works provides comprehensive
information regarding environmental and waste prevention programs, including
household hazardous waste collection, used motor oil recycling, yard waste
management, business and residential recycling, waste tire management and
storm water pollution prevention. To learn more about these programs, the
public is encouraged to call the countywide toll-free recycling hotline at
1-888-CLEAN LA or visit the Web site at http://www.888cleanla.com .
CONTACT: Jennifer Reese of Edelman Worldwide, 323-857-9100, ext. 237; or
Dave Albritton of Sears Roebuck and Co., 847-286-9017, pager, 800-759-8888,
PIN #7273076.