Electronic recycling Saturday at Sam's Club
By staff
Published in News on January 7, 2007 2:05 AM
Residents and businesses alike have the opportunity to drive up and drop off their obsolete and unwanted electronic equipment Saturday, Jan. 13, in the Sam's Club parking lot from 9 a.m. until 3 pm.
Computers and peripherals including PCs, printers, keyboards, scanners, monitors, circuit boards and hard drives, office equipment and products including telephones, cell phones, answering machines and pagers will be accepted at no charge.
However, Franklin's Recycling will no longer accept TVs because of the increased cost of handling and processing the large volumes of leaded glass in them.
Franklin's Recycling does not ship any products overseas for recycling. Instead, the company uses North Carolina and regional plastic and metal recyclers.
While recycling rates for the municipal solid waste stream in the U.S. climbed to 32 percent in 2005, there is another waste stream that is growing faster than other types of municipal solid waste - electronic waste. One of the factors attributed to this growing waste stream is rapidly advancing technology. This compels consumers to upgrade their equipment sooner rather than later as they perceive their equipment, which is still functioning, to be obsolete.
Electronics make up to 70 percent of all hazardous waste entering landfills and, according to the EPA, consumer electronics may be responsible for 40 percent of the lead found in landfills.