| Who: | City of Great Falls, Pacific Steel & Recycling, MAFB, MSU College of Technology, MT DEQ, D.A. Davidson, Montana Waste Systems |
|---|---|
| What: | Electronics Recycling |
| When: | November 9-14, M-F 8am - 5pm Sat: 8am - noon |
| Where: | Pacific Steel & Recycling 1624 12th Ave. N. |
| Why: | A chance to recycle bulky, environmentally hazardous, electronics and prevent them from damaging our environment. |
| Summary Poster (PDF) | |
E-rase your E-waste! is coming once again to Great Falls – November 9-13, from 8 am to 5 pm and November 14, from 8 am to noon at Pacific Steel & Recycling 1624 12th Ave. N.
This special event provides a great opportunity for residents to recycle old televisions, computers and other household electronic equipment.
Don’t wait until Saturday to come in with your E-Waste, we are offering a 25% Discount Monday – Friday.
To schedule a business pick up contact Brandon Fox at Tatooine 1-406-861-4920. There will be a charge of $.33 a lb.
Cell phones with batteries and chargers will be collected for the YWCA Women’s Shelter for 911 call use.
The City of Great Falls offers this electronics collection event to give residents and businesses an opportunity to recycle electronics and keep these bulky and sometimes hazardous waste-containing items out of the landfill. This special event draws attention to the importance of recycling electronics.
E-waste is a popular, informal name for electronic products nearing the end of their "useful life." Computers, televisions, VCRs, stereos, copiers, mobile phones and fax machines are common electronic products and make up one of the fastest growing segments of our nation's waste stream. The National Safety Council projects that nearly 250 million computers will become obsolete in the next five years and mobile phones are being discarded at a rate of 130 million per year.
Computer monitors and older TV picture tubes contain an average of four pounds of lead and require special handling at the end of their lives. In addition to lead, electronics can contain chromium, cadmium, mercury, beryllium, nickel, zinc, and brominated flame retardants, presenting problems if not disposed of properly. Extending the life of your electronics or donating your most up-to-date and working electronics can save you money and save valuable resources. Safely recycling outdated electronics can promote the safe management of hazardous components and supports the recovery and reuse of valuable materials.
Using proper disposal methods helps to keep harmful metals such as the lead found in computer monitors out of landfills, which is also resulting in the protection of nearby ground water supplies from potential metal contamination from landfill leachate. Electronic products that can be reused, result in less energy being required to produce new ones and this saves energy and reduces pollution. Sometimes recycling computers can create a supply of parts and materials that can be used on the manufacture of new products or to refurbish older ones.
(Source: USDA Agricultural Research Service)
Before recycling your computer equipment, remember to have your hard drive(s) cleaned. Just deleting data/files will not make your information inaccessible! Montana DEQ provides a list of cleaning software available for purchase or download.
Computer Security software can be obtained for free at http://www.deq.mt.gov/Recycle/Frequently-AskedQuestions.asp#security