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Recycle your Out of Date Electronics for
Free
The Darke County Environmental Council for Business and Industry, the
Darke County Solid Waste Management District, and Creative Recycling,
Tampa, FL, are joining forces to sponsor a “FREE” Electronics Recycling
Day on May 26, 2011, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., in the swine barn at
the Darke County Fairgrounds. Vehicles will enter the front
gate(near Wayne Healthcare), will go through the swine barn to be
unloaded and will go out the back gate of the fairgrounds to prevent
congestion. During this event, the district will accept
non-perishable food items to be taken to Grace Resurrection food pantry.
Anyone interested in participating in this program must be
preregistered by May 16, 2011. In addition to the Darke County
Solid Waste Management District Office at 603 Wagner Ave; Suite C in
Greenville, telephone 937-547-0827, preregistration forms can also be
printed from the district’s website at www.co.darke.oh.us/solidwaste
. Preregistration prevents long lines and longer waits because
each person participating is assigned a specific time to bring in
electronics. In other counties where preregistration did not
occur, participants waited as long as two hours to recycle their
electronics.
The program, which is “free” to all Darke County businesses,
industries, schools, nonprofit organizations and residents, will
involve the participation and support of nine Darke County agencies to
make it work. These Darke County agencies are the adult probation
office’s community service and litter collection department, the board
of county commissioners, buildings and grounds department, common pleas
court, municipal court, general health district’s environmental
division, and the agricultural society. Best of all, neither your
tax dollars nor the county’s general fund are being used to fund this
program!! The Solid Waste District uses fees collected from area
disposal companies to fund this program.
Electronics equipment can be very expensive to throw away or even
recycle. Local businesses can pay as high as $820 to have
electronics hauled to a disposal site. Computers, especially,
which go out of date as fast as they come on the market, can be
extremely costly. Darke County residents can pay as much as $20
per monitor to have their computer or television monitors
recycled. Because of the expense, many organizations have large
storage areas full of equipment that they will never use again.
Many homeowners also have used electronics building up in their attics,
basements, and garages.
All equipment that is brought in for recycling will be picked up and
taken to Environmental Recycling in Bowling Green, Ohio. The
electronics will be repaired and rebuilt for reuse or will be
disassembled for recycling. The company will not accept large and
heavy items such as console televisions, stoves, large floor copiers,
refrigerators and air conditioners, which contain freon. Other
than these items, CER will accept any electronics, computer equipment,
and peripheral. Some of these items may include computers (CPUs,
CRTs, PCs), keyboards, monitors, printers, typewriters, adding
machines, calculators, table-top copiers, portable televisions (no
consoles), small kitchen appliances such as microwaves and toaster
ovens, radios, telephonic equipment, manufacturing equipment, cables,
cords, and other electronic wiring.
Because of the burden electronic equipment places on disposal
landfills, the environment, and natural resources, some states have
banned electronics disposal in landfills. The Solid Waste
District has tried to keep electronics out of landfills by sponsoring
Electronics Recycling Days in 2001, when 70,000 pounds were collected;
in 2002, when 74,000 pounds were collected, in 2004, when 84,000 pounds
were collected, in 2006, when almost 111,000 pounds were collected, in
2008, when almost 185,000 pounds were collected, in 2010, over 111,000
pounds were collected.
On Electronics Recycling Day, Daryl Riffle and the Darke County
Agricultural Society are allowing the collection to take place in the
Swine Barn on the fairgrounds. James Schaar, Chairman of the
Darke County Environmental Council, and Krista Fourman and Missy
Werling, of the Darke County Solid Waste Management District are
responsible for planning, promoting, and coordinating the
program. For more information, call 937-547-0827.
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