Going Green
By Jim Bona
(Hamilton, NY – Jan. 2015) The new year always brings new laws that take effect. Some are more noticeable than others. (I would say that some are more important than others, but if legislators are making a law, I guess it must be important, no)?
One new law that is going to affect everyone is the one that all electronic waste must now be recycled. This applies to businesses as well as individuals. In the past, much e-waste ended up in the landfill. This is, unfortunately, not the best end spot for that type of used up material. E-waste is rich in components that can potentially be recycled, although it is very labor intensive. All those circuit boards contain many metals, some precious, some toxic, which can be retrieved. It takes a lot of work to do this and much of it is painstaking and dangerous. (It is often relegated to low paid workers in third world countries).
E-waste is stuff like hand held devices, wireless phones, along with computers, laptops and peripheral equipment; printers, keyboards, mouses, (mices? meeses?) faxes, digital scanners, stereo components, televisions. It also includes VCRs and DVD players, video games, and cable TV boxes. Those are a lot of different items.
What isn’t affected by this new law are household appliances, although those should be all recycled anyway.
Where to take your stuff to be recycled? Interestingly, the law states that manufacturers should take back devices that they have made, but where is there a manufacturer around us? (pretty tough to take it to China). Unlike the bottle law, which makes every store redeem bottles, there is nothing like this in the new law, unfortunately.
There are two spots in Oneida that accepts e-waste, Gary’s Auto on Fitch Street and LOJO’s Technology on Farrier Avenue. They are the only ones close by. There may be others in your own area. You are just going to have to poke around to find them. Hopefully there will be more locations in the future.
Remember: if you are caught putting e-waste in the trash, you run the risk of getting a $100 fine.
Jim Bona is recently retired and a resident of the village of Hamilton for more than 30 years. He is passionate about all things green…and a few other things too. He can be reached at: madnews@m3pmedia.com