A Palmerton area church has ended its half-century tradition of collecting newspapers and recycling them.

This past Sunday, the congregation at St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church of Towamensing assembled for a final closing of its Newspaper Garage.

At that time, the Rev. Kenneth Melber Jr. conducted a final farewell to that component of the congregation with a short service at the garage.

Immediately afterward, Melber said the congregation met in the Social Hall to enjoy a meal along with some fond memories.

“We had a ceremony and closing of the door, gathered for a lunch,” Melber said. “We had probably over 100 people.”

Melber noted that among the people who spoke are family members of Carl Behler, who started the recycling program 51 years ago.

“The folks who spoke have been intimately involved in this and know it from a different perspective,” he said. “(They expressed) the thankfulness for the hard work that everyone put in.”

Melber said that for decades, they collected papers and turned them around for profit. However, times have changed, and the need is no longer there.

“(Behler) had known a church out of the area that was doing a recycling program and they started it in 1971,” he said. “The building we used for the recycling was donated.”

Melber said that since 1971, they recycled over 24.3 million pounds of recycling over those years, and raised almost $350,000.

“The reason we stopped is because of the price of recycling going down; it’s a lot of work for the few gentlemen who are left that do the very backbreaking work,” he said. “It served us well for 51 years, and served the community well for 51 years.”

Melber said he witnessed their dedication up close and personal.

“Many times I was over at the church to do something this year, and there was usually someone there with a truck or van unloading,” he said. “We’re very glad for those 51 years that there was a place for people to do this.”