Area wide residents can drop off old or unwanted electronics items for recycling, at no charge, Saturday May 8, 2010, at The News-Gazette Distribution Center located at 3202 Apollo Drive in Champaign. The collection will take place from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The Countywide Residential Electronics Collections are organized to allow residents in vehicles to drop off unwanted electronics items in a safe and relatively quick manner.

Residents each can bring up to 10 electronics items to the event. There, teams of volunteers and workers unload vehicles that line up to be emptied at four or five drop off stations.

Approximately 75 people will be volunteering or working onsite to unload and keep the line of vehicles moving as safely and efficiently as possible.

Acceptable electronics items to be collected for recycling from residents are: televisions, computers, laptops, computer monitors, printers, scanners, keyboards, mice, cables, zip drives, fax machines, VCR players, DVD players, MP3 players, PDAs, video game consoles and mobile phones.

This collection is coordinated by the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission and sponsored by Champaign County, Urbana, Champaign and Savoy.

Also a sponsor, The News-Gazette has offered its Distribution Center as the host site for the 2010 collection events.

The University of Illinois College of Fine and Applied Arts and the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center are assisting with promotion of the collection events. The contractor for the May 8 and remaining 2010 events is Vintage Tech Recycling Inc., based in Romeoville.

In 2008, Illinois passed legislation that set statewide recycling and reuse goals to be met by electronics manufacturers for all covered electronics devices.

More information about The Electronic Products Recycling and Reuse Act, including information about recycling and reusing electronic products, is available online. Also there you’ll find directions to the collection site and answers to questions. Or you can call 328-3313.