Posted on 01/26/2013 2:16:35 PM PST by RBW in PA
MILFORD — The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is reminding consumers and businesses that they are no longer be able to throw away their electronic devices with their trash.
Passed in 2010, the Pennsylvania Covered Device Recycling Act requires that consumers and businesses not dispose of covered devices, such as computers, laptops, computer monitors, televisions and tablets with their trash. This means that trash haulers will no longer take covered devices unless the municipality has a curbside electronics collection program that ultimately sends the devices to an electronics recycler. The law took effect Jan. 24.
“This law is an important step toward further reducing the amount of waste disposed in our landfills,” DEP Secretary Mike Krancer said. “There will be a host of positive impacts from this law, such as deriving economic benefits from precious metals found in electronics, eliminating heavy metals in the environment and encouraging environmental stewardship.”
Under the new law, the covered devices and their components must be properly recycled and may not be taken to, or accepted by, landfills or other solid waste disposal facilities for disposal.
The law also requires that manufacturers of the covered devices provide for the collection, transportation and recycling of these devices by establishing one-day events, permanent collection programs or mail-back programs for consumers. This is offered to consumers at no cost. Manufacturers must work with an electronics recycler that is properly permitted and certified to handle and process electronic waste.
Manufacturers must register their covered device brands with DEP and attach brand labels to those devices. Additionally, retailers who sell electronic covered devices may only sell devices with a manufacturer’s brand that is registered with DEP.
Consumers can also continue to recycle their electronics through a county or municipal electronic recycling program, if one is available. It is recommended that before taking any electronics to collection points or drop-off locations, consumers should first contact that location to see what types of electronics they accept.
Consumers can find more information on registered manufacturers and where to recycle their covered devices at www.dep.state.pa.us, keyword: Electronics Recycling.
Additional recycling information is available from county recycling coordinators, whose contact information can be found on DEP’s website, keyword: recycle, or through the Recycling Hotline at 1-800-346-4242.
Here in the unenlightened exurbs of Charlotte, we take the attitude that if it fits in the rollout bin, the (private) trash-haulers will dispose of it. Just what do they do with my old electronics? I don’t ask, they don’t tell.
Do what I do with crap the trash won’t pick up - get a shovel and bury it in your back yard. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
That’s what happens here. For our 3rd week of the month bulk trash pickup I sometimes put out old electronic items I don’t want to mess with and are not worth selling. Most items are picked up before the City trucks roll by.
They've been doing this recycle stuff in California the last few years (at least in the SF Bay Area). There's a surcharge on new electronics, so nothing is free. They hold regular one-day pickups of electronics. The stuff is not automatically trashed! It's big business for recyclers who contract to gather the stuff from citizens. They thank citizens for handing it over, because it's easy money to be made from it. It's sorted, and much of it is resold to collectors and hobbyists. I have found many bargains by dealing with recyclers, for instance buying in lots of items where reselling a single item on eBay can pay for the lot. So, many of these items supposedly going to the trash do end up in the hands of collectors. The crap left over is shredded for recycling.
Sigh. Nobody wants the leftovers.
There is gold in computer stuff - connector contacts.
Where I is, about every street there is someone with a truck doing metal recycling, and they even took a basketball hoop of mine!
Because they don't work for us; we work for them.
We down here in So. Calif. (Ventura County) have had electronic recycling for many years.
There are regular annnouncements of Community Day Recycling, say, at City Hall or the Community Center.
Our housing tracts have small-to-smaller yards, so no disposing of anything except maybe for a small pet rat
or two - - -
A couple months ago my county had one of these electronics collection days, and the line of traffic was half a mile down the highway. So I turned around and went home to smash the stuff up, jam it in a “contractor bag”, and leave it for the trash collectors.
The scumbags pass a law like this, they better think it through.
LOL!
Last week I replaced one of those piggy tail government light bulbs and my wife said I wasn’t supposed to throw it in with the regular trash. So I threw it in with the regular trash and said, “Let Ubama and the scumbag Democrats worry about the trash.”
These leftists aim to make us into a Third World rathole. Segregated recycling, bacteria breeding reusable cotton shopping bags, low flow toilets that you have to flush twice to flush (I’ve got one), next we’ll be making musical instruments out of discarded oil drums, and playing them while sitting on milk crates.
Good. I'm harsh on government for many things they do, but I think the electronic recycling makes some sense. I felt much better about it once I learned that the people contracted to do the collecting, were repurposing stuff and putting it in the hands of collectors such as myself. I just think it's a shame to shred perfectly good vintage electronics. There's a recycling center ten miles away where I pick up stuff I buy from them. I replace components in vintage computers and make them good as new, and resell them. Couldn't afford to do it without being able to buy components cheaply. For instance, getting a lot of ten hard drives average cost each $1.50 when a single one costs $40 or more on eBay. The vintage stuff is no longer available new, and the old machines won't work with newer stuff (at least not without a lot of customizing - expensive).
In other words we want to review your hard drives first?
They probably want to get their hands on this stuff to refurbish it and hand it out as Obamaphones and stuff.
Smash it good when you get rid of it.
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