Recycling Avenue provides jobs for the disabled

WHEELING, Ill. (WLS) -- In a tough economy jobs are hard to come by for everyone, and it's even more difficult for people with physical disabilities.

If you can't find a job, create a job. That's what some young people with disabilities told themselves. Now their determination is helping others to make a living and make a difference.

Back in 2007, P.J. Flaherty and his friend Greg Campone, two young men with physical disabilities, wanted to make a living.

"We were looking for work and we wanted to be able to help out the community as well," says Flaherty. "So we decided to do electronics recycling, along with that we decided to do eBay as well, which is part of recycling as we like to say."

The non-profit group Avenues to Independence, which provide support services and job placement for people with disabilities in the north and northwest suburbs, gave the two a space to work with in wheeling, and Recycling Avenue was born.

The company picks up items from bins placed all over the area and accept drop-offs at a Wheeling warehouse.

"It's not just the recycling of electronics good and the re-sale of things that still have some value, but just general types of things that people will donate to us that have some value thru the power of eBay," says Robert Okazaki, Executive Director of Avenues to Independence.

Six people work various shifts at the recycling center. Colleen Lynch says it's more than just a job.

"We think of this place as our family," she says.

The operation is already being called a success financially. They now sell to vendors all over the country, while providing employment opportunities for a group of people hungry for work.

"In 2007 when we started up the recycling program we were at the beginning of the worst economic downturn in 80 years, and people were really up in arms because the regular unemployment exceeded 10 percent," Okazaki says. "Well my guess is that you had unemployment for people with disabilities that was pushing 90 percent."

And the people who started all this just because they wanted to work now say they are on a mission.

"I'd like to see it be able to expand to offer more opportunities for people like myself and also opportunities to help with the environment and keep all the electronics and stuff out of the landfills," Flaherty says.

The recycling center and the umbrella organization, Avenues, gets a little state funding, but they depend heavily upon donations from the public to keep the programs going.

For more information about the company, including pick up locations, visit www.avenuestoindependence.org/what_we_do/recycling_avenue/