Published December 2002

County institutes recycling policy for electronics

By Kimberly Hilden
SCBJ Assistant Editor

Throwing out that old computer is no longer as easy as putting it on the curb for garbage pick-up.

In November, Snohomish County drop-off facilities stopped accepting old computers and monitors, computer circuit boards, televisions and other electronics as garbage because some of their components, such as cathode ray tubes, contain hazardous materials, including lead, mercury and cadmium.

Instead, businesses and residents must recycle them.

The move follows similar actions taken by King County, where disposal of items containing CRTs is prohibited for commercial customers, and the city of Seattle, where disposal of such items is prohibited for commercial and residential customers.

To help Snohomish County residents and businesses with their electronics recycling, the county’s North County Recycling and Transfer Station in Arlington is accepting electronic items for a fee.

These items will be taken to Total Reclaim Inc. of Seattle. From there, glass from old TV sets will be sent to a glass plant to make new picture tubes, steel will head to a steel manufacturer and computer circuit boards will be sold to precious-metal buyers.

The county’s waste-handling department also has put in place the “Take it Back Net-work,” a network of private electronics-recycling companies that businesses and residents can contract with, said Jeff Kelley-Clark, director of the county’s Solid Waste Division.

For businesses selecting a vendor to do their electronics recycling, the question to ask is “And then where does it go?” said Shirli Axelrod of Seattle Public Utilities, who spoke to a group at the Washington Recycles Day conference in Seattle.

Ask this question as many times as it’s necessary to find out what happens to an old computer monitor, CPU or circuit board — and who handles it, she said.

Will the computer parts be recycled to make other goods here in the United States, or will they be shipped overseas, where less stringent environmental regulations may allow them to be dumped as hazardous waste?

“The fewer custody changes, the better,” advised Axelrod. Her first choice is the product’s manufacturer, followed by the “most responsible” end-processors available, followed by the “most responsible” dismantlers available.

In the future, the electronics recycling process may begin at the point of purchase, said Kelley-Clark. He noted that Snohomish County already is working with manufacturers, retailers, other governments and nonprofit groups to set up a national recycling system, which could be paid for by a fee that’s included in the purchase price of new electronic products.

“What we’re hoping for is a national up-front fee that you pay when you buy,” Kelley-Clarke said. And such a system would spell the end of the new drop-off fees here in Snohomish County.

“That would mean that when you get rid of the TV, you can get rid of it for free,” Kelley-Clarke said.

The effort also includes asking electronics manufacturers to make their products more recyclable and less toxic. Solving the problem will mean years of work.

“That stuff doesn’t happen overnight,” he said. “We’re several years away from that.”

For more information on electronics recycling, fees or local electronics recyclers, call 425-388-3425 or go to www.co.snohomish.wa.us/takeitback on the Web.

— Herald Writer Brian Kelly contributed to this report.

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