By Huewayne Watson
If you’ve ever considered being environmentally conscious about discarding your old
and useless electronic items commonly known as “e-waste,” you may know that
doing so is a challenging task.
The City of Buffalo and Erie County are sponsoring
a Residential Computer and Electronics Recycling Drop-off Day at Buffalo State College today, Saturday, January 17, 2009 from 9:00AM to
1:00PM. This free recycling event is co-sponsored by Buffalo State EverGreen
and Buffalo AmericaCorps.
Residents of Buffalo and Erie County are encouraged to properly
dispose of old, broken, and unwanted electronic equipment today at the
college. In addition, if you have clean textiles and clothing that you would also like to
donate, AMVETs will be pleased to accept them at the event.
“After the Holidays
we are pleased to offer city and county residents the opportunity to properly
and safely recycle unwanted computers and electronic items,” said Mayor Byron
W. Brown. He states that “By participation in this event, resident are helping
to reduce the amount of unsafe disposals in our are, which can be harmful to
their health as well as environment.”
This is the city’s eighth annual
event of this kind, and stands out as an initiative that will be carried out for years to come, with the ongoing discussion about e-waste recycling, both nationally and
internationally.
Last year, New York City became the first US city to pass an
E-waste law, joining 18 states that have adopted laws requiring manufacturers
to electronics to collect used products. Some companies charge competitive
prices to discard of unwanted CPUs, monitors, keyboards, printers, cell phones,
fax machines, VCRs, DVD players, televisions, fluorescent bulbs, rechargeable batteries,
and a laundry list of household electronics. Countries like China have gone
into the business of recycling E-waste from numerous countries throughout the
world. Discarded E-wasted is collected and their internal components are separated
and mined for precious and heavy metals like gold, lead, and copper found in circuit boards, wiring and chips.
The City of Buffalo and Erie County play only
a small role in the growing E-waste recycling process, but continue efforts to rid the environment of potentially harmful waste. At a previous event held
at the Buffalo Zoo, the City was able to recover 40 tons of electronic items. This included 1,000 monitors, 1,000 computers and 400 televisions. The collection netted 20,000 pounds of lead that might have otherwise been sent to landfills, empty
and abandoned lots and surrounding running water.
Computers and household
electronics contain countless hazardous chemicals and metals including lead and
mercury.
“We are encouraging people to recycle more and hope more people will
take up the initiative. Many residents throw E-waste in regular garbage and we
would prefer that they dispose of it properly at event like these,” says Peter
Cutler, director of communications for the City of Buffalo. If you have been thinking
about discarding some old or waste electronics, stop by the event at Buffalo
State College and contribute to the effort. Though participants must certify
that their items are household generated everyone is invited to drop off their E-waste. Commercial waste will not be accepted.
Drop-off at Lot G via Grant Street.