E.L. Harvey wins big with lottery ticket recycling

Recycling Today, August, 2005

A program for recycling non-winning lottery tickets is paying off big for Westboro, Mass.-based recycler E.L. Harvey & Sons and the Massachusetts State Lottery.

"Instant Re-Play," the lottery's anti-litter program that rewards individuals that collect and recycle non-winning instant or scratch tickets, has yielded 50 tons of tickets.

The recycled tickets are converted into paper goods, such as tissue, toilet paper and napkins, according to Ellen Harvey, executive vice president of E.L. Harvey & Sons, which is helping to collect and recycle the tickets.

"The program is just getting started," she says. "The number of tickets we've collected has grown each time we've organized a collection, and we expect it to continue growing as word continues to spread."

An Earth Day collection on the Esplanade in Boston yielded eight tons of instant tickets in just five hours, while a June 28 collection at lottery headquarters in Braintree, Mass., resulted in the collection of 16 tons in five hours, according to a release from E.L. Harvey & Sons.