****NOW 2 LOCATIONS FOR ELECTRONIC RECYCLING****
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First United Methodist Church
3160 E. Spring Creek Parkway
Plano, TX 75074
10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
1st Saturday of every month
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2049 Coit Road
(NW corner of Coit & W. Park Blvd)
9:00 - 11:00 a.m.
3rd Saturday of every month |
Residents will be charged to recycle the following electronics:
Monitors - $5.00
All other electronics - 15¢ per lb
Televisions - $10.00 minimum
(price varies based on size)
Payments Accepted: Cash, Check, AmEx, Discover, MasterCard and Visa
Items Accepted for Electronic Recycling: cables, CD ROM drives, circuit boards, chips, computer books, computer systems, digitizer and drawing boards, disk drives, DVD players, external drives, fax machines, hard drives, keyboards, laptops, modems, monitors, motherboards, mouse components, phone systems, printers, processors, radios, scanners, software, stereo components, telephones, TV's, mainframe equipment, minisystems, terminals, line printers, telex machines, word processors, ham radio equipment, and copiers.
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Office Depot Electronics Recycling Program
Office Depot, Inc. has launched an electronics recycling program at all of its North American Retail locations. The "Tech Recycling Service" is available at more than 1,100 Office Depot stores. Customers can recycle all types of personal electronics, from digital cameras to computers, by buying the appropriate-sized Tech Recycling Box at Office Depot stores. The boxes sell for $5, $10 and $15 and include all shipping and handling. Customers take the box home and fill it with used electronic devices, including cords and cables, and return the unsealed box to the store. Office Depot piloted the program in 2006 at some 100 U.S. stores, recycling more than 108,000 pounds of electronic products. For more information visit
http://www.officedepot.com/promo/pages/docs/TechRecyclingBroch_July.pdf.
Plano Locations:
909 N Central Expressway 1701 Preston Road
Plano, TX 75075 Plano, TX 75093
(972) 578-0201 (972) 733-0221
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Become an Educated Electronics Recycler
Consider the following before recycling your electronics:
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Several manufacturing companies are taking a leadership role in taking back many of their products; and their programs are often free! Research these manufacturer’s take-back programs before you recycle your electronics:
- If your equipment still works and you think someone else can use it, consider donating it to a reuse organization.
- Goodwill: Enter your ZIP code at www.goodwill.org to find a local branch. Every Goodwill store is managed differently, so call first to ask if they accept equipment.
- Residents of Plano can drop off their old electronics at the monthly electronic collection event, held every third Saturday of the month, 9:00 -11:00 a.m., at Elliott's Hardware located at 2049 Coit Road (NW corner of Coit & W. Park Blvd.).
To wipe out a hard drive, follow these steps:
Boot up with your Operation System Boot Disc (examples: DOS, Win3.x or Win 9.x, Win Me)
At the A prompt (A:/>) type: “Format C:/U” and press enter. The space after the word “Format” is important. When asked if you want to erase your hard drive, select “YES.” This unconditional format command will destroy all existing data and prevent anyone from un-formatting the hard drive.
If you have multiple partitions on your hard drive, or more than one hard drive, you will need to repeat the command substituting the drive letters for each partition or drive. (Example: FORMAT X:/U where X is the drive letter substituted)
For more information on electronics recycling, please contact Melissa Baird at (972) 769-4132 or melissab@plano.gov.
Why Recycle?
Electronic waste, or ‘e-waste’, is considered the fastest-growing segment of the municipal waste stream in the United States. This year alone, Plano residents have discarded more than 53 tons of electronic waste, including computers and televisions!
Recycling electronics keeps hazardous components like lead, copper, and mercury out of our landfills, and is always the responsible alternative to throwing these items into the garbage!
Computer recycling in the U.S. is expensive, hazardous and encumbered with safety regulations. And, the resale market for e-waste in the United States has not kept up with the supply of discarded electronic equipment. Because of this, companies that refer to themselves as ‘computer recyclers’ oftentimes end up shipping the e-waste to under-developed nations where the equipment is stripped for it’s valuable parts (often, only the gold in the wires). The carcasses are then dumped into nearby fields or streams, polluting their land, water, and air, and endangering the workers who improperly handle these materials.
Currently, the government does not regulate these businesses, and the Environmental Protection Agency has no certification process for recyclers.
Background
The City of Plano wants to ensure the electronics recycled at our monthly electronic collection events are properly disassembled, recycled, and responsibly disposed of. We also want to ensure they are not unintentionally exported to under-developed nations.
Plano is currently partnered with a local business, eRecycler, who will provide both an auditor to monitor their export practices and the reporting necessary to track equipment to its ‘end-of-life’ buyer. (Currently, there are no laws that mandate either auditing or reporting on electronic recycling, so it is difficult to find recycling companies that will voluntarily comply.)
The City of Plano is the only city in Texas to have adopted the ‘best management practices’ standards created by the Electronic Resource Recovery Council of the Recycling Alliance of Texas when they were released July 2006. These standards place stringent rules on the exporting and reporting of electronic materials.
Additionally, on September 11, 2006, the City of Plano became the first city in North Texas to pass a resolution in favor of producer takeback recycling of electronic waste. The resolution holds that when producers are forced to manage their own discards, they have a strong incentive to design equipment that’s nontoxic and safe to recycle.
With these in place, the City of Plano leads the state, and most parts of the country, with our residential electronic recycling program.
New Legislative
Click here to read the letter from Texas Campaign for the Environment regarding: Electronics Recycling Bill Passes Key Senate Committee Unanimously - Bill Would Require Computer Producers to Be Responsible for Recycling Their Products
Sony Will Take Back Products
(Source: Media Release from Texas Campaign for the Environment, August 17, 2007)
Sony has announced it will take back any used product with Sony’s name on it, at no cost to consumers, and will eventually reach a goal of recycling a pound of old electronics for every new pound of products sold. Sony, which has the largest market share of television sales in the US, is the first consumer electronics company to make such a commitment in this country.
This is the kind of corporate responsibility that we rarely see in this country, but that we as consumers should insist on, before we buy any company’s products! However, we need to see more details about how they will manage the e-waste they collect. We are concerned because Sony is partnering with Waste Management. We want to make sure that Waste Management isn’t simply exporting the e-waste to developing countries.
TCE is now calling on the rest of the television industry to join Sony in offering free takeback to consumers in this country. If Sony can make the economics work, then so can Panasonic, Sharp, and Philips.
As we face the February 2009 deadline for switching from analog to digital television, many consumers will be ready to toss their old lead-containing CRT televisions in the trash, replacing them with new flat panel TVs that receive digital signal. The rest of the television industry should step up and take back all of these old televisions – to keep them out of the landfills - especially since these companies are now making millions of dollars selling us the new TVs!
TCE is working to make sure that the computer takeback legislation we helped pass this year (that requires computer-makers to set up takeback recycling programs by September 2008) is expanded to include TVs when the State Legislature reconvenes in 2009.
Click here to read the USA Today and Fortune stories on the Sony announcement.
This is the link to Sony’s TV recycling program. They are offering $100 coupons (to be used toward the purchase of an HDTV) to people who bring their old TV’s to be recycling. They have drop-off locations (none near Plano) and a mail-in option coming soon.
Link to information on TV take-back http://takebackmytv.com
For more details on Texas’ new recycling law and updates on available recycling or donation options, visit www.texastakeback.com.
Currently, several companies have started takeback and recycling programs, usually in response to grassroots campaigning. Here are some of the companies offering recycling options:
Dell: All Dell products for free, non-Dell computer products for free when you buy a Dell. www.dell.com/recycling
HP: Consumer must pay for recycling, but receives a $50 credit towards new purchase. A monitor currently costs $46 to recycle. www.hp.com/recycle
Apple: Any brand of computer recycled for free if you buy a new or refurbished Apple computer or monitor. Without purchase, $30. iPods are accepted for free at Apple stores.
www.apple.com/environment/recycling/program/index.html
IBM/Lenovo: Consumers pay $30 for recycling PCs and receive $50 credit for purchasing Lenovo products. www.pc.ibm.com/ww/lenovo/about/sustainability/environment/Product_Recycling_Program.html
Toshiba: Free recycling for Toshiba laptops and MP3 players, possible credit for trade-in of a laptop. http://toshiba.eztradein.com/toshiba/
Motorola: All Motorola cell phones recycled for free. www.racetorecycle.com
Nokia: All Nokia products recycled for free. www.nokiausa.com/recycle
If Producers Won’t Take it Back
There are some recyclers that have pledged to do the right thing by signing Basel Action Network’s Pledge of True Stewardship. They won’t export hazardous e-waste to developing countries, use prison labor, landfill or incinerate it. For a national list of responsible recyclers, visit www.ban.org.
Texas E-steward Pledgers
Intechra (DFW area): www.intechra.com
ECS Refining (DFW area): www.ecsrefining.com
Scientific Recycling (Austin area): www.scientificrecycling.com
Corona Visions (San Antonio) www.coronavisions.com
Texas Campaign for the Environment (Austin, DFW area) recycles cell phones, pagers, PDAs: www.texasenvironment.org
FedEx Kinkos stores responsibly recycle cell phones, pagers, and PDAs as well.
Thanks for your support of TCE's efforts to promote producer takeback of electronic waste!