Pioneer Press Tue, 20 Nov 2007 23:09:49 -0700
Twin Cities / Recycle your e-waste for free!
Neil Mathiason pulled his pickup truck next to two semitrailers filled with discarded electronics at J.R.'s Advanced Recyclers in Inver Grove Heights on a recent afternoon.The Farmington resident said he was thrilled to be able to get rid of two broken 26-inch TVs and three VCRs - also known as e-waste - at no charge. J.R.'s Advanced Recyclers is one of about 30 recyclers in Minnesota registered to collect TVs, discarded residential computer monitors and other display devices for manufacturers. Under a state law that took affect July 1, manufacturers are required to collect the e-trash, and they are turning to local recyclers to gather it for them. J.R.'s began offering free residential e-waste recycling Oct. 1, and the family business says it is the only privately owned recycler in the state to do so. The law has caused a drop in the public's cost to recycle e-waste, because many recyclers have secured contracts with such manufacturers as Sony and Hewlett-Packard to reimburse them for the products they collect, said Garth Hickle, product stewardship team leader at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. That, coupled with the 2006 law that made it illegal to dump TVs and computer monitors in the trash, has caused more people to recycle, Hickle said. One need only look at the thousands who swarmed a free e-waste recycling event last week at the Mall of America. Eagan-based Materials Processing Corp. scrapped the event about halfway through after Advertisement too many people showed up, causing traffic concerns, but not before the company collected almost 1.5 million pounds of e-waste. E-waste hysteria is old hat for the folks at J.R.'s. "The moment we said it was free, it got crazy," said Jim Vosika, corporate manager. "We used to charge anywhere from $15 to $55 for a TV, and overnight it went free. And people are happy."
[[keywords: LandUse;Living;Metro;]]
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