Electronic Waste Recycling in Dutchess County: Household Hazardous Waste Day

Saturday's household hazardous waste cleanup day brought in over 100 carloads of chemicals and electronics, handled by Advanced Recovery Inc and Care Environmental. I brought a carload of things I'd collected from friends, family, and the Beacon community. Special thank you to The Coffee Shoppe Beacon for graciously hosting an electronics collection under their back porch. Here's some photos of the early morning fun:

Loading up vehicles at the Coffee Shoppe

Paints/Chemical/Thinners/Driveway Sealers/Etc

Electronics only

Unloading the Fit in Poughkeepsie

Unloading the many cans of paint to be processed by Care Environmental

Workers unloading hazardous chemicals must wear protective clothing to handle the materials

A few days later, I went to visit the Advanced Recovery facility in Port Jervis. They've been established there since 1991, and have since expanded into offices in Newark NJ and Fairmount NC. Tom Baldino, Chair of the Beacon Conservation Advisory Committee, joined me on the visit. It was truly awesome to see a warehouse full of electronics in various stages of disassembly, and to learn about how they are prepared for the next step in recycling. Special thanks to Bob Travers (Government & Municipalities Recycling Specialist), Mark Rea (President) and the whole team at Advanced Recovery for showing us around and answering our questions about electronics recycling.


Here's some shots of televisions in various states of breakdown:

On the line, being pulled apart from plastic casing

ABS plastic is heat & impact resistant, and must be recycled according to specific standards

ABS plastic baled and ready to be shipped

Read more about ABS plastics on wikipedia and about the challenge of recycling this material here.


Fluorescent bulbs:

These bulbs contain mercury, and must be recycled properly according to NYS law, passed in 1999. This includes the green-capped bulbs that contain less mercury. These bulbs must be handled either by events like the Household Hazardous Waste Collection Days, and by Home Depot, Lowe's, and other hardware stores. To find the nearest drop off location, visit Earth 911.


Wires:

This tangle of wire holds a multitude of valuable materials that can be reused, particularly copper!

Keyboards:

Keyboards have as many as 28 screws, which must be unscrewed to reach the recyclable boards inside

Keyboards awaiting disassembly

Circuit boards:

Circuit boards have valuable gold components; here, see the gold on the left side above Bob Travers' thumb

The next household hazardous cleanup event in Poughkeepsie will be held on the morning of Saturday, June 4. Please register by calling DCRRA at 463-4020. For a list of acceptable items, see their website. The city of Beacon is organizing an electronics collection day - please stay posted for the date and details.