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For Immediate Release: October 12, 2006
Contact: Shannon Unruh
Environmental Waste Services
Phone: 972-769-4132
CITY OF PLANO FIRST CITY IN NORTH TEXAS TO TAKE A STAND ON NATIONAL ELECTRONIC RECYCLING DEBATE
City Council’s Unanimous Vote Makes
Plano the First City in North Texas to Vote on E-waste Resolution
The lack of an effective national system for e-waste recycling and disposal has resulted in illegal dumping of e-waste in the U.S. and abroad. 50-80% of the e-waste taken to U.S. “recyclers” is actually being shipped illegally to developing countries such as China, India, Nigeria and others. Investigations have uncovered crude scrap operations that poison the community’s water and cause grave health problems.
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 this summer. 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.
“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”, notes Shannon Unruh, Chemical Education Coordinator for the City.
Plano has recently partnered with a local business, Intechra, 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 can comply. The Environmental Protection Agency has no certification process for electronic recyclers, nor do they regulate these businesses.) A handful of computer recycling companies, like Intechra, are not waiting on legislation to support producer takeback resolutions or ban hazardous e-waste from Texas landfills before voluntarily acting responsibly.
With these changes in place, the City of Plano leads the state, and most parts of the country, with our residential electronic recycling program. ****NEW LOCATION****
The Electronic Collection has moved to a new location:
Elliott's Hardware
2049 Coit Road
(NW corner of Coit & W. Park Blvd)
9:00 - 11:00 a.m.
3rd Saturday of every month
Beginning October 2006, Plano residents will be charged a nominal fee for disposal of electronic waste at the City’s monthly electronic collection event. A flat fee will be charged for computer monitors ($5) and televisions ($10), since they contain the largest quantity of toxic materials (such as lead, mercury, and cadmium). All other electronic equipment will be $0.15 per pound.
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