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York County offers e-cycling this Saturday

If your house has become a haven for outdated electronics, here’s your chance to do some cleaning.  The York County Solid Waste Authority conducts a free electr...
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If your house has become a haven for outdated electronics, here’s your chance to do some cleaning.  The York County Solid Waste Authority conducts a free electronics recycling program the third Saturday of every month at its Yard Waste Transfer Facility located off of Flour Mill Road in Manchester Township.  This month’s program will be held on Saturday, September 21 from 9AM to 1PM.

All York County residents, businesses and non-profit entities are eligible to participate in this program. In addition, residents, businesses and non-profit entities who are located in a municipality that has contractually agreed to deliver waste only to the York County Resource Recovery Center may also participate. Those municipalities include Swatara Township, Highspire Borough, and McSherrystown Borough.  In addition to the Authority’s main collection site on Flour Mill Road, 10 York County municipalities conduct satellite programs in conjunction with the Authority’s program. The following municipalities accept electronics from all York County residents and businesses: Fairview Township, Penn Township, Shrewsbury Township, Warrington Township, York City and York Township.  These municipalities accept electronics only from their municipality’s residents and businesses: Hopewell Township, Lower Windsor Township, Red Lion Borough and Windsor Township.  Currently, Best Buy’s York store, located at 2865 Concord Road, also offers free recycling of covered devices.

Please DO NOT bring electric equipment (such as toasters, hair dryers, wall clocks, or electric razors), OR construction demolition, furniture, appliances, white goods, appliances containing Freon (dehumidifiers, air conditioners, refrigerators) or household hazardous waste. There is no fee to participate in the program.  Residents and businesses with large quantities of electronics, (i.e. more than a pickup truck load of electronic material) should call the Authority before the collection date to make arrangements for delivery.  The program is made possible by funding generated from tipping fees (cost for disposal of waste) collected at the York County Resource Recovery Center.

Examples of electronic equipment accepted in this program include answering machines, compact disc players, fax machines, computer hard drives, laptops, mobile phones, modems, microwave ovens, pagers, personal computers (CPU, monitors, keyboards, mouse, and peripherals), printers, printed circuit boards, radios, remote controls, stereos, tape players, telephones and telephone equipment, televisions, and VCR’s.  Residents are responsible for removal of any personal data contained on electronic devices and computer hard drives.

Beginning January 24, 2013, Pennsylvania’s “Covered Device Recycling Act” (Act 108)  prohibits the acceptance of certain electronic materials at all Pennsylvania solid waste disposal facilities and also prohibits residents from placing them at the curb for waste pick-up. Under the Act, waste haulers will NOT pick up “covered devices”. Waste haulers should place a sticker on covered devices that provides directions for where to go to properly manage them.  Covered devices” include televisions, desktop and laptop computers, computer monitors and computer peripherals (anything that connects to a computer such as a mouse, keyboard, printer, etc.).

Residents must now manage these covered devices by recycling them. The Act requires manufacturers of covered devices sold or offered for sale in Pennsylvania to make collection programs available to Pennsylvania residents for the recycling of their covered devices. Though not required, retailers may also offer collection programs. Both manufacturer and retailer collection programs for covered devices are required to be free of charge, unless a coupon, rebate or other financial incentive of equal or greater value is supplied.  Residents should contact retail outlets prior to delivering items to ensure acceptance of specific items.

Municipalities that opt to conduct their own electronics recycling programs may deliver their electronics to the Authority during the Authority’s monthly collection program, or store materials collected under cover or under roof until pick-up by the Authority’s vendor can be scheduled.  There is no cost to municipalities for the Authority’s electronics vendor to properly manage electronics collected in a municipal program. The Authority currently reimburses participating municipalities with the revenue generated by the weight of electronic items collected by the municipality.

The Authority has hired Eco International to manage the materials collected during this event.  Eco International harvests useable parts (circuit boards, power supplies, wood, plastic, and CRT glass); valuable metals (gold, copper, steel, aluminum); and potentially harmful components (lead, mercury and cadmium) and recycle them.  Virtually all but one percent of the materials are recycled into new products. For more information, visit the Authority’s web page at: http://www.ycswa.com.

The Authority facilitates responsible solid waste management through an integrated strategy that emphasizes waste reduction, reuse, recycling and resource recovery.  The Authority is the owner of the York County Resource Recovery Center in Manchester Township; and owns and operates an Education Center, a Yard Waste Transfer Facility and a Recyclable Materials Drop-off Center.  The Authority also owns the now-closed York County Sanitary Landfill, a portion of which has been “recycled” into a recreation complex operated by Hopewell Township through an agreement with the Authority.

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