By Wade Rawlins, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.

Apr. 22–Triangle residents tossed out more than 1.3 million pounds of computers, televisions and stereos last year, most of them likely replaced by newer models that could also become attic clutter one day.

As people celebrate Earth Day today, there is green lining to this waste stream. Many of those junked circuit boards, leaded-glass monitor screens and video recorders didn’t end up in local landfills. They went to companies that recycle the electronics for steel, copper, glass and plastic.

But that is not consistently true across the state.

The age of electronics — in which new models replace old models in months rather than decades — produces lots of scrap known as e-waste and new challenges for handling the castoffs.

Only about a dozen counties and cities in North Carolina have permanent electronics recycling programs. They include Wake and Orange counties and the cities of Raleigh, Durham and Cary. Another dozen counties have collection events once or twice a year when residents can drop off their old TVs and computers. In most places, obsolete computers just go into attics or, worse, landfills. Dumped with other rubbish, they can leak lead, cadmium, mercury and other harmful metals.

“The collection around the state is spotty,” said Scott Mouw, the state’s recycling coordinator. “The majority of households in North Carolina have no local program to use. It’s not like those people don’t have TVs and computers. It’s just that they don’t have access to a service that would have them recycled.”

Orange County, which began a full-time program in 2003, has one of the nation’s highest electronics recycling rates. It’s paid for with a $27 annual fee charged to owners of homes and businesses.

Wake County has had a collection program since 2002, and each year the quantity of materials collected increases. Last year, the county collected 826,000 pounds of electronics, including 208,000 pounds of monitors and 156,000 pounds of televisions.

On Thursday, a trickle of people showed up at the North Wake landfill’s recycling center; one fellow dumped a pickup truck load of computers monitors.

Annette McMillan and a co-worker at the U.S. Department of Agriculture dropped off five old computers, a printer and fax machine at the North Wake Landfill electronics recycling site. McMillan said they brought the equipment there because they knew it would be recycled.

“It doesn’t do anyone any service when that is taken to the landfill,” McMillan said. “It doesn’t help the environment.”

Ralph Poyo, a faith formation director at a Catholic church, dropped off his father’s old computer and printer. He was happy to learn the computer would be recycled after “sitting around for six months.”

The electronics are loaded onto pallets and placed in truck trailers. The county pays Envirocycle, a Pennsylvania company, about $200,000 a year to take the electronics for recycling, said Craig Wittig, who oversees the county’s program. A $20 solid waste fee added on county property tax bills pays for the program.

“On average we ship out two full semi trailers a month,” Wittig said. “Prior to us having a collection program, that material would have probably gone to a landfill. We anticipate that that volume will continue to increase.”

So does Global Electric Electronics Processing, a Canadian company that opened a plant in Durham in 2002 to recycle electronics.

The company has 25 employees who disassemble electronics into components, such as steel, copper, aluminum and other parts. The pieces are sold to manufacturers to be used in new computers and other products.

“Think about all the material that goes into these electronics,” said Dan Roe, GEEP general manager. “It’s an energy waste when you take all that stuff and discard it.”

GEEP recently invested in a large shredder to allow it to handle more electronics. Roe predicted the company would increase the volume of electronics it handles from 2,000 tons to 10,000 tons a year when the shredder is running later this year.

Many counties are reluctant to start electronics recycling programs because of the expense, said Mouw, the state recycling coordinator.

State proposal

A bill introduced by Sen. Janet Cowell of Wake County would ban electronics from landfills and add $5 to the price of computers and televisions to pay for county recycling programs across the state. A similar program exists for old appliances such as refrigerators and stoves.

Environmental groups say the bill would help counties afford recycling programs and would provide materials for recyclers.

“The biggest problem in e-recycling is a lack of materials for businesses that process electronics,” said Elizabeth Self, government affairs coordinator for the N.C. chapter of the Sierra Club. “If you put a method where we get materials to those companies, that would really spike the market.”

The bill has been sidelined in a Senate committee, but Cowell hopes to at least get a hearing on the bill in the coming session.

“We think a statewide funding source is the key to making that happen,” Mouw said. “Then every North Carolinian would have a permanent drop-off site.”

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Copyright (c) 2006, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The News & Observer

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