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RALEIGH – Computer equipment and televisions will be banned from disposal in North Carolina landfills as of July 1, following a law passed last year by the General Assembly.
Photo courtesy of freerangestock.com.
Session Law 2010-67 bans from landfill disposal computer equipment, which includes laptops, desktops, monitors, printers, scanners and peripherals such as mice and keyboards. Other components of the law are designed to create recycling opportunities for discarded electronics across the state and to place significant responsibilities on electronics manufacturers to help fund and create those opportunities.
Citizens and businesses have a variety of options for recycling electronics in North Carolina. Most counties offer collection programs and more community programs are emerging. All computer manufacturers are required to offer at least free mail-back for their own equipment, and some offer additional kinds of recycling options. A number of retailers also offer recycling of electronics, as do some nonprofit and charitable agencies. A comprehensive list of recycling options can be found at: http://www.p2pays.org/electronics/.
The disposal ban helps divert highly usable materials to a growing electronics recycling industry in the state. North Carolina is home to a number of major national and regional electronics processors with investments of plants and equipment exceeding $50 million that employ more than 300 North Carolinians.
“By capturing valuable materials for reuse and reducing our dependence on landfills, electronics recycling can help us achieve both our environmental and economic development goals,” said Secretary Dee Freeman of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. “I encourage all North Carolinians to join in this effort to make the electronics disposal ban a success.”
Computer equipment and televisions join a list of other materials banned from disposal in North Carolina, including most recently plastic bottles, wooden pallets and oil filters. These bans have resulted in increased recycling of the materials and have helped spur further growth in the state’s recycling economy. As with previous similar measures, enforcement of the electronics disposal ban will focus on disposal facilities such as landfills and transfer stations.
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Our business 1st used Staples who wouldn’t take a few of the items we had and seemed a bit disorganized. We then used on several occasions a Raleigh based company called TechnologyRecycler.Net – http://www.technologyrecycler.net They picked up all of the electronics, computers, monitors, laptops and printers we needed to recycle and provided a recycling certificate for accounting and IT. We have dropped off some smaller loads of items as well from time to time.
I prefer dealing with companies instead of the landfill as it seems that they only take a limited number of items and everything is just thrown in boxes. At least at places like TechnologyRecycler.Net and even Staples the stuff is handled with a bit more care which means that some of the useable items might find a second home instead of being destroyed (such a waste).
Our business 1st used Staples who wouldn’t take a few of the items we had and seemed a bit disorganized. We then used on several occasions a Raleigh based company called TechnologyRecycler.Net – http://www.technologyrecycler.net They picked up all of the electronics, computers, monitors, laptops and printers we needed to recycle and provided a recycling certificate for accounting and IT. We have dropped off some smaller loads of items as well from time to time.
I prefer dealing with companies instead of the landfill as it seems that they only take a limited number of items and everything is just thrown in boxes. At least at places like TechnologyRecycler.Net and even Staples the stuff is handled with a bit more care which means that some of the useable items might find a second home instead of being destroyed (such a waste).