Champaign County residents looking to get rid of an old computer, television or other electronic device can help the environment and tidy up their homes by bringing their old materials to a countywide recycling event Saturday, April 19. The Champaign County computer and electronics recycling event will take place at the Materials Recycling Facility, 10 E.Champaign County residents looking to get rid of an old computer, television or other electronic device can help the environment and tidy up their homes by bringing their old materials to a countywide recycling event Saturday, April 19.

The Champaign County computer and electronics recycling event will take place at the Materials Recycling Facility, 10 E. St. Mary’s Road in Champaign. Residents can bring their recyclables anytime between 9 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., event organizers said.

“These events encourage safe management of potentially hazardous components,” said Susan Monte, planner with the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission. “They also help support the recovery and reuse of valuable materials as well as reduce the pollution and energy use that is tied to producing new electronics.”

The 2007 computer and electronics event collected a record of 72,000 pounds of materials, Monte said.

“If we recycle these materials we don’t have to look for new (materials) because we can just reuse them,” said Heather Smith, project and communications manager for the National Center for Electronic Recycling.

Mack’s Recycling is a participating sponsor of the Champaign County event and has been helping residents with recycling anything from kitchen sinks to cars for decades, said Calvin Arndt, head of Mack’s computer recycling department.

“Recycling is the most important thing we can do for our legacy and what comes after us,” Arndt said. “Recycling is all about starting over.”

The event is sponsored by the county, the city of Champaign, the city of Urbana, the village of Mahomet, the village of Savoy, Mack’s Recycling and the University. This day of recycling will be the fifth such event to take place in Champaign County since 2002, Monte said.

While environmental concerns are also important, Arndt said that people should be concerned with keeping materials out of landfills to ensure that we do not have to go back and dig them out in the future.

If people continue putting aluminum, copper and other resources into landfills, there may be a problem in the future when those resources are needed, but there are already shortages due to a lack of recycling, Arndt said.

Awareness about recycling electronics has improved in recent years, Smith said, as more people become environmentally conscious and understand the consequences of throwing everything in a landfill.

It is possible there are potentially hazardous materials and chemicals in computers and electronics that would be harmful to our health and the environment if simply put into landfills, Smith said. Harmful chemicals in computers and electronics can cause later problems such as toxins seeping into our creeks or underground waterways, Arndt said.

“I think people usually know it’s bad to throw electronics away,” Smith said. “But they don’t always know exactly what to do with them.”

Mack’s Recycling and the city of Champaign said they hope residents will take advantage of the recycling event as an opportunity to safely dispose of their old computers and other electronic products.

While 2,043 items from 850 different vehicles were collected at last year’s event, sponsors hope this year’s event will top previous records, and residents are encouraged to come out and donate.

Items accepted will include computers, stereo equipment, printers and scanners, answering machines, telephones, DVD players and VCRs, digital cameras and televisions, according to an informational flier about the event.

“Bring it all,” Arndt said. “We are ready to recycle what the community has to give us.”

How to help

Can’t attend the Champaign County recycling event but still want to find a better way to get rid of your electronics than simply throwing them away?

Log on to www.electronicsrecycling.org and go to My Green Electronics. This search engine will help you find a local recycler for your electronic products.