Here's your chance to clean out your offices, closets, basements and attics, wherever you've stowed those mismatched cables, outdated computers and TVs and castoff gaming equipment. The Richland County "E-rase your E-waste" committee is once again hosting several "mini" e-waste collection events this summer, leading up to its 8th annual weekend event on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 7-8 this year.
This year's summer-month collections - held every third Thursday from May through August from 3-7 pm - will begin Thursday, May 17. All collections are FREE and are held at the Richland County Shop at 2140 W. Holly in Sidney, next to the Fairgrounds. Signs will be posted. This year's dates for the summer month collections include May 17th, June 16th, July 21st and August 18th. Please note, the county shop is available for drop offs during event times ONLY.
UNICOR again serves as the e-cycler for all the 2012 events and continues to recycle all acceptable items at no charge, according to "E-rase your E-waste" organizers Jackie Couture and Butch Renders.
"It's great that we can offer this service again free to the community," Renders said. "The summer month mini-collections generated a very good response last year with more than 46,000 pounds of e-waste collected on those Thursdays. Overall, "E-rase your E-waste" has recycled more than 200,000 pounds of outdated electronics in this area since its inception in 2005, which is pretty amazing, considering for the first several years people had to pay to participate."
Volunteers will be available to help with loading and unloading at the shop, Renders noted; however, businesses, schools and other organizations with large amounts of e-waste to recycle are asked to make an appointment to drop off their items by calling Jackie Couture at 406-433-9422. Please leave a message.
Where possible larger recyclers are also encouraged to palletize their own items, or send extra staff to help get it done at the summer events. Details on acceptable items and how to palletize them can be found in a handout posted to the USDA-ARS Northern Plains Agricultural Research Lab's e-waste website at http://www.ars.usda.gov/npa/nparl/ewaste. In addition, a handy "Items List" recycling form is also available at the website to further speed processing time for participants bringing both large and small amounts, Couture noted.
The "E-rase your E-waste" effort in Sidney is coordinated by members of the Richland County Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC), Richland Opportunities Inc., and volunteers with other community organizations including the RSVP program. Several local businesses, including Sidney Health Center, Lower Yellowstone REA and Sidney Sugars, have also provided packaging, packing and promotional support in the past, and similar support is expected this year, Couture said, adding that already the MT Department of Environmental Quality has committed funds for advertising the event.
The city of Sidney and Richland County have also provided significant financial support over the years in addition to allowing use of the county shop for collection events, while the USDA-ARS Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory in Sidney continues to provide significant organizational and promotional support.
While encouraging area residents to e-cycle, "E-rase your E-waste" organizers also noted that e-waste in Montana and North Dakota is not yet regulated and in many instances can legally be disposed of in local landfills, although some do charge a fee. However, because of the toxic substances contained in e-waste such as lead, mercury and heavy metals that could cause serious environmental and human health problems, Couture says many individuals and businesses opt for e-cycling where available, even at added costs. And the great thing about e-cycling, she adds, is that 98.5% of e-waste materials can be reused in some other fashion, meaning longer landfill life as well as a healthier environment.
Correction
The dates included in the above story in last week’s issue of the The Roundup were not correct. The dates listed above are the correct dates. We apoligize for any inconvience this might have caused.
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