July 23 Electronics Recycling Day in Beacon

This Sunday was the Beacon Sloop Club's annual Strawberry Festival down at the waterfront. I was there representing the Conservation Advisory Committee & July's Electronics Recycling Day. Of course, I brought a broken TV from the streets of Beacon (and let a few choice buddies hit it with a hammer when children weren't looking). It was an excellent day of talking to many people about the electronics event, compost questions, and recycling issues.


Many thanks to my buddy Liam O'Mara for the photo of me talking with local superstars Shabazz Jackson & Josephine Papagni of Greenway Enviro. Here's a really good article about what they've done for organic waste and compost systems from The Valley Table. I really must visit them and take a tour of their Poughkeepsie facility!






People I talked with seemed really into getting rid of their broken stuff the right way, and many knew about the issues that go along with e-waste when it's not disposed of responsibly. One of the biggest problems that we face in Dutchess County is air quality. According to the Poughkeepsie Journal, "Every year, Dutchess County's trash-burning incinerator in the Town of Poughkeepsie releases 3,777 tons of global-warming carbon dioxide, along with 333 tons of soot, sulfur compounds and various other pollutants, according to environmental reports.It also produces 50,000 tons of ash — one for every three tons of trash burned — that have to be hauled to faraway landfills." Here's a link to the whole article.  I can't stop thinking about the 20+ computer monitors I saw in the dumpster at the transfer station last week, and the correlation between electronic waste burning and our air quality. It's not the first time I've seen electronics there, or on the streets of Beacon. Below is a photo from the winter at the transfer station, with fine-looking suitcases in the dumpster along with at least 1 TV.

Here's a link to the downloadable flyer for the electronics recycling event. It'd be great if you helped to promote it, so less of this stuff is burned. If you're printing it, please use the brightest paper you can! It'll be all over the 'net soon, and posted to telephone poles & businesses in town. Stay tuned for info on local bicycle-powered pickups on the day of the event!