“Local landfills off recycling options for electronic items”

Local landfills off recycling options for electronic items

Posted: 20 Dec 2010 09:21 PM PST

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Photo by JOHN HAEGER Doug Holdridge packs batteries into a large box to be recycled at the Madison County Landfill on Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2010.

Photo by JOHN HAEGER Doug Holdridge wraps a box of TVs to be recycled at the Madison County Landfill on Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2010.

Photo by JOHN HAEGER TVs to be recycled at the Madison County Landfill on Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2010.

By MATT POWERS
Dispatch Staff Writer

Photo by JOHN HAEGER Doug Holdridge packs the trailer with TVs to be recycled at the Madison County Landfill on Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2010.

The holiday season brings a flood of used televisions and computers pouring into local landfills and recycling centers as new gifts replace yesterday's technology.

Director of Recycling at the Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Authority David Lupinski said the department processes around 130 tons of electronics every year.

Lupinski said there is a spike in electronics being discarded during the holiday season and he encourages residents to recycle the products.

Oneida and Herkimer County residents can recycle electronics like televisions, computer monitors, DVD players, GPS devices, VCRs, stereos and other electronic equipment at no charge at the Household Hazardous Waste Management Facility on Leland Avenue in Utica. Businesses will be charged $5 per computer monitor.

Non-residents of those counties cannot use the facility in Utica.

Lupinski said it is important for people to remember the toxic materials that are often found in electronics when considering how to dispose of them.

"For example your cathode ray tube television, a CRT screen on the old TVs have almost five pounds of leaded glass in there," he said. "Say it was broken in a parking lot, that lead would leach into the ground water."

Computer monitors often contain metals like lead, silver and gold, which can be recycled.

The recyclable electronics are loaded on a truck and sent to a recycling company in Buffalo.

In recent years, the illegal exporting of electronic waste to developing countries has generated debate among manufacturers, environmentalists and human rights advocates. Continued...

Lupinski said the department is careful about how the electronic waste is handled once it leaves Utica.

"We try to look at the end of life for the materials," he said. "So the companies that we send it to, we want to make sure that they're not sending them to foreign countries to be burned in an open ditch to get the plastic off. So we use due diligence to make sure that they provide us with C7 notification. That is a list of where their end markets are located."

Madison County Department of Solid Waste Director James Zecca said the cost of Madison County handling the recycling program has grown.

"It's pretty costly for the counties to recycle this type of material," said Zecca.

Despite the nearly 50 percent state aid funding for the program some of the cost still falls on the residents who recycle electronics.

The Madison County landfill uses a punch card system for the disposal of waste. On Jan. 1, a punch card will have a value of $13.25 and have five punch spots on it. A television or computer monitor is one punch on the card or $2.65. Many other electronics are accepted at no charge.

All of the normal county collection will change starting on April 1 when the New York State Electronic Equipment Recycling and Reuse Act goes into effect.

The act will transfer responsibility of handing electronic waste from the county to the manufacturers of the products.

"We are one of 24 states that passed this type of legislation, which will require the manufacturers to be responsible for the products that they produce and the disposal of them," said Zecca. "It will relieve a lot of those municipalities of that burden of getting rid of electronic waste which has become a big thing now."

Although counties are not required to continue to offer a drop-off point for electronic waste, some will continue to accept it before handing it off to manufacturers. Continued...

"We want to work with them because we already have the infrastructure set up where homeowners can deliver the products," said Lupinski.

Electronics stores may also become a popular drop-off point for manufacturers. Already, as a result of a 2007 law, wireless telephone service providers that offer phones for sale must accept cell phones for reuse or recycling.

The trend has begun to play itself out at large electronics stores which are accepting televisions and computers to send directly back to manufacturers.

Zecca said it is important to remember to recycle another popular throw-away item during the holiday season.

"Of course with this time of year after Christmas there are lots of toys and clearing out batteries," he said. "Rather than putting them in the trash we encourage people to recycle them."

Drop-off points for batteries in Madison County include the offices of many town clerks and the county office building.

Household Hazardous Waste Management Facility at 80 Leland Ave. in Utica is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

For more information call, 733-1224 or visit:

www.ohswa.org

The Madison County Landfill at 6663 Buyea Road in Lincoln is open Tuesday through Saturday, 7:10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Continued...