Thinking of replacing that eight-track player or upgrading that ancient Atari? Those outdated electronics are old enough already - don’t store them any longer! Instead, recycle them at the Solid Waste Authority of Palm Beach County.
Accepted items include:
- Audio/visual equipment: VCRs, stereos, etc.
- Cell phones and rechargeable batteries
- Computer CPUs and laptops
- Computer monitors
- Computer accessories: keyboards, mouse devices, printers, scanners, etc.
- Televisions
- Telecommunications equipment: phones, fax machines, etc.
- Holiday lights
Residents can bring all of these electronic items to any of seven Solid Waste Authority of Palm Beach County Home Chemical and Recycling Centers:
Commercial quantity electronics may require special disposal. Call 561-687-1100 for details on recycling electronics from your business.
Collected items are sorted by SWA staff and hauled away by a private contractor. Any useful components are recovered and reused when possible. Everything else is shredded, sorted by type and each material – plastics, metals and glass – is recycled into new products.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency:
- Americans generated 3.36 million tons of obsolete electronic products in 2014.
- Recycling one million laptops saves the energy equivalent to the electricity used by 3,657 U.S. homes in a year.
- One metric ton of circuit boards can contain 40 to 800 times the amount of gold and 30 to 40 times the amount of copper mined from one metric ton of ore in the United States.
By recycling electronics, you can help protect the health of your community, family and environment, reduce the pollution created by manufacturing new products, and reduce the energy needed to make those new products.
Not a bad encore for an old eight-track player.
For more information on electronics recycling, go to SWA.org/Electronics or call 561-687-1100.
