Electronics recycling opportunities continue to grow under E-Cycle Wisconsin. Sarah Murray is E-Cycling coordinator for the Department of Natural Resources. Beginning in 2010, the state banned many devices from landfills and incinerators and created the E-Cycle program.
“They are very complicated devices, they have a lot of different materials like lead and mercury that we don’t want to escape out into the environment, and there are also a lot of materials that can be reused and have value,” Murray explained.
There are now nearly 450 permanent electronics collection sites for recycling old TVs, computers and other consumer electronics, along with approximately 250 special collection events in 67 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties, covering 99 percent of the state’s population.
“We have a list on our website of all the collection sites registered in the program,” Murray said.
E-Cycling has proven popular – the collection sites that have registered with the program over the past four years have sent 123 million pounds of electronics to recyclers, 95 percent of which operate in the upper Midwest. The recyclers safely dismantle the electronics and recycle the plastic, metal and glass so they can be used in new products.