12/30/2008

By RYAN KOST  / Associated Press

Starting New Year's Day, Oregonians will be able to recycle, free of charge, the old computers and television sets filling their closets and garages.

The Department of Environmental Quality has worked with manufacturers, collectors and recyclers to establish more than 230 drop-off stations throughout the state, giving life to a bill passed during the 2007 Legislature.

Oregon is one of more than a dozen states that have made plans to deal with discarded electronics, according to the department.

As it is now, customers typically have to foot the cost of recycling televisions, computers and computer monitors. That's if the customer knows such an option exists. The Department of Environmental Quality estimates only 18 percent of Oregon's electronic waste makes it to recycling centers. The rest ends up in garages and landfills.

"Throughout the whole state, there weren't a lot of options for recycling these materials," said Kathy Kiwala, the department's e-waste project manager. "They don't decompose. There are heavy metals, toxins, carcinogens that get into the ground water or into the air. Really recycling is a much better option."

Under the new system customers will be able to go to a collection center and drop of their leftovers for free. The items will then be handed over to a recycling center — or in the case of a few computers, a reuse program. The collectors and recyclers aren't responsible for any sensitive information left on the computers.

The cost is covered by producers who must pay the state a fee based on their Oregon market share or operate their own recycling program.

There are exceptions. Curbside pickup will still cost customers. And only households, small businesses or nonprofits and people recycling seven or fewer items during a given drop-off will be able to avoid a charge.

Rep. Ben Cannon, one of the legislators who helped shepherd the bill through the Capitol, said it was designed not only to encourage Oregonians to recycle their electronics, but also to prompt producers to consider building products with an eye toward recycling and reuse.

"It gives producers an incentive to build their goods with a longer life span," Cannon said. "I think that anything we can do to increase the public's appetite, likelihood and ease of recycling is a good thing."

Computers and televisions can be broken down into several valuable materials, said Andy Sloop, the general manager of Total Reclaim, a Northwest recycling business. Their plastic casings can be melted down and reused. Circuit boards can be mined for certain metals. Tubes in older-model televisions can be melted and remade for new sets.

The law asks the Department of Environmental Quality to ensure that recyclers are being environmentally sound in their processes and not just shipping pieces off to a foreign landfills rather than local ones.

Total Reclaim has been preparing for this switch since the legislation was first passed. The new environmental standards, he said, won't be a problem.

"We've been advocating for some of the environmental standards that this legislation requires," he said. "We're not really having to make big adjustments."

The Department of Environmental Quality is estimating more than 12 million pounds of electronic waste will be recycled over the coming year. "We don't know how much people have store in their basements and garages, but we do know there's a lot," Kiwala said. "There's a pent up need for this."

What's more, the initial set up is only the beginning. A year from now, landfills will be banned from accepting these sorts of environmental waste, pushing, ideally, recycling from 18 percent to something much higher.

Recyclers can log onto http://www.oregonecycles.org or call 1-888-532-9253 to find their nearest collection center.