Volunteers from Michigan Technological University men’s club volleyball — alumnus Matthew Radloff of Appleton, Wisconsin; Alex Roelant, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student; and Ian Blair, a master’s of business administration student — sort plastic bags during the second annual Waste Reduction Drive Saturday. (Photo by Garrett Neese, Houghton Daily Mining Gazette)

HOUGHTON — At least 31,000 items otherwise bound for a landfill were collected for reuse Saturday as part of the second annual waste reduction drive.

Members of Michigan Technological University’s Sustainability Demonstration House and other volunteers collected items at Tech’s Student Development Complex.

Event organizer Rose Turner, a graduate student and SDH resident, was glad to see residents put in so much effort to divert their waste. The event is also intended to show people how many opportunities there are to reuse those products. A station outside the SDC had pamphlets on how to recycle more esoteric items such as tires and eyeglasses.

“If it can’t go curbside, that doesn’t mean it can’t be recycled somewhere else,” Turner said.

This year’s drive had an expanded lineup of acceptable materials: plastic film, plastic bags, egg cartons, dental products, foil-lined wrappers and plastic bottle caps.

By an hour and a half after the drive ended, volunteers had logged more than 31,000 items, with more still to be counted, according to the Sustainability Demonstration House’s Instagram page.

Everything will be reused. Dental products and razors will be sent to Terracycle, which converts them into park benches. Egg cartons will go to local chicken farmers. Plastic film is headed to Trex, a company that converts plastic waste into decking boards.