Environment

Late phone books delay Scout recycling project
Six schools in Sparks were ready to pitch in with 13-year-old Boy Scout Tim Hansen’s phone book recycling campaign. But with only a couple of weeks to go before winter break, new phone books weren’t yet out. That’s putting a serious crimp in the teen’s environmental activism. In fact, the Hansen boy might not even get to collect the tons of paper he usually does each year.

Hansen began what’s become an annual recycling project while working toward both his Eagle Scout award and the William T. Hornaday Silver Medal, a prestigious award that’s presented to only six hard-working Scouts across the nation each year. His dad and assistant Scoutmaster Jim Hansen says Tim’s considered doing a collection drive after school starts up again in January, but by then it may be too late. People will have already sent the old books off to become landfill.

“We’ve gotten used to the schedule sliding,” says Jim Hansen. “But this year, it’s one of those things where timing isn’t where it should be.”