Where Will All The Old Computers Go?

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Towns and even whole counties are abandoning electronic recycling, leaving the responsibility to the owners and worrying environmental groups.
“It’s actually a much bigger environmental problem than people realize,” said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club, of the downward trend on collecting those outdated and broken laptops and TVs.
One of the most recent municipalities to give up on the program is Hazlet. At its April 19 workshop meeting township committee members unanimously agreed that with a monthly cost of $500 per container to collect the discarded items and with very little salvageable for re-sale to recoup costs, Hazlet would discontinue collection.
The municipality had started the program about a decade ago and allowed any Monmouth County resident to dispose of their e-waste, which is transported to the county reclamation center. Local officials announced on the town’s website their decision was to “the lack of continued program support from the County and State.”
Residents were advised to take their items to the county reclamation center, 6000 Asbury Ave., Tinton Falls.
Red Bank Public Utilities Director Clifford Keen said his department is continuing to collect e-recyclables at no charge to any county resident. But, the private sector company that had been collecting the items, Monmouth Wire and Computer Recycling, had just sent Keen’s office an email announcing it would begin charging $500 a month for the service that it had been providing free. “We have not discussed the charges or how it will affect the borough yet,” Keen acknowledged. But local officials will look at the costs “and decide whether or not the service is something that borough residents feel is a valuable service or not.”
Monmouth County representatives did not immediately offer comment on the county’s position on the issue.
Tittel said along with numerous municipalities around the state, Cape May County has discontinued the collection and other counties are likely to follow, if they haven’t already. “Or they’re just piling up in the DPW (Department of Public Works) garage and doing nothing with them,” for some counties that are continuing the program, or they’re just making their way to the landfill or incinerator, he continued.
The state’s Electronic Waste Management Act, signed into law in 2011, was supposed to help alleviate the situation, containing, among other provisions, encouragements for the companies to collect unwanted electronic items, such as tablets, cellphones, computers and the like, and harvest the useful and recyclable components before the rest is discarded “and not burden the public sector,” with it, said Amy Goldsmith, executive director of Clean Water Action New Jersey, the state chapter of a national environmental protection organization.
According to state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) figures, the legislation resulted in the collection of 40 million pounds in the year following the law being enacted.
The problem, however, for such things as cathode ray tubes (CRTs), found in televisions and computers—which contain lead—“There’s a glut in the market,” and it’s just not worth the expense of collecting these items any longer, said DEP spokeswoman Caryn Shinske.
And with the large amount of material and the diminishing returns on collecting it, it is driving up the cost of collection and recycling, said those interviewed for this story.
These electronic devices, which have, of course, proliferated over the last few years, often contain valuable materials, such as gold, silver and platinum. And these should be retrieved and reused given “some of them are extracted in ways you and I would not want to know about, thus you or I would never want to buy a computer again,” given the environmental ramifications from the mining and often the use of child labor, and so on, in developing countries, Goldsmith noted.
In addition, these products contain lead, cadmium and other things that could have serious consequences if they leech into the water or are released into the air when incinerated, Goldsmith pointed out, making the case for increased recycling.
“Computers have a big global footprint,” she said, “whether it’s carbon, toxins, workers’ health, community health,” she said.
And ultimately, “It’s a problem to not have a place to take electronics,” said Sandra Huber, executive of New Jersey Clean Communities, a statewide litter abatement program, “because it’s going to get dumped someplace and we’ll have to spend money to clean it up.”
And, warned Jennifer Coffey, executive director of the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions, an environmental education and advocacy organization, “When you make it more difficult to recycle materials the drop in the rate of recycling is very likely sharp and immediate.”
Under the existing law, manufacturers registered to sell TVs in the state, as required under the law, must accept the TVs for recycling, based upon a percentage of TVs sold, calculated by the state, according to the DEP’s Shinske. The same if true of other electronic devices.
But enforcement is minimal, Tittel charged, compounding the situation.
Collection sites are listed on the DEP website, according to Shinske.
Gov. Chris Christie pocket vetoed (letting it just die on his desk) a more stringent bill, supported by environmental groups like the Sierra Club, Tittel said. But Tittel’s organization is lobbying for another version of it that has made it out of state Assembly committee.