Recycling electronics can be a challenge in Pennsylvania
Scott Beveridge/Observer-Reporter
Ellen C. Keefe, executive director of Westmoreland Cleanways and Recycling, is shown in the nonprofit organization’s processing center.
Scott Beveridge/Observer-Reporter
An example of the thickness of a television’s glass screen
Scott Beveridge/Observer-Reporter
Nearly 400 discarded televisions and 525 tires were dumped at Chess Park in Monongahela earlier this year.
LATROBE – A recycling operation in Westmoreland County is still processing the mountain of televisions dumped more than a month ago in a Monongahela park under a spring cleanup that went amiss.
Westmoreland Cleanways and Recycling of Unity Township has already processed about half of the nearly 400 TVs that found their way to the city’s Chess Park, said Ellen C. Keefe, the group’s executive director. The nearly 525 vehicle tires that were dumped in the park have already been sent to a third party to be cut into pieces before going to a landfill, she said.
“That’s what we’re prepared for,” Keefe said, referring to the backlog of hard-to-recycle items that end up here this time of year after many groups hold spring cleanups in Southwestern Pennsylvania.
Her nonprofit organization is the only place in the region that processes and recycles TVs, computers and other items that are not allowed in landfills under state law. The items dropped off at the monthly electronics collections at Washington County Fairgrounds even make their way to Westmoreland Cleanways.
“We’re the only ones who take them,” Keefe said. “That’s just the nature of the beast.”
The trash that piled up in the park resulted from a Redd Up the Mon Valley cleanup effort of state Rep Bud Cook, R-Daisytown, that included instructions from the city for people to drop off household items there and at other locations. The cleanup took on a new life on social media, leading people from as far away as Pittsburgh to believe they could rid their basements and garages of old TVs and tires. Cook and state Sen. Camera Bartolotta, R-Carroll, later agreed to pay the $7,600 bill to haul away the TVs and tires in what was termed an emergency situation.
Televisions contain lead. Tires collect rainwater and attract mosquitoes. There are heavy metals in some components.
“They have to be kept out of the regular waste stream,” Keefe said.
Westmoreland Cleanways charges people $3 to accept a tire. The tires it collects are taken to a company in Stahlstown, where they are hand-cut into small pieces under the rules that permit them to be disposed of in landfills.
The TVs must be whole before they are stacked on pallets and wrapped in plastic. They are then shipped in trucks that each hold 20,000 pounds to a processor in Georgia. That’s where they are melted down in smelters to separate the glass from the lead, which is recycled into making acid car batteries.
The computers and anything attached to them can each contain a pinhead amount of precious metals – gold, platinum or silver. These items also are smeltered to recycle the metals. The hard drives are destroyed by an industrial-strength shredder.
“People think recycling is easy. It’s actually a complicated process,” Keefe said.
Her organization strives to make the state’s recycling program work, and it stays out of lobbying for changes to the recycling law, she said.
It collects two million tires a year and is visited by about 100 people seeking to recycle items during each workday.
Several other organizations are lobbying for improvements to the law, including Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful in Greensburg.
Pennsylvania’s recycling law has “created a supply and demand imbalance” that makes it difficult for electronics recycling organizations to make a profit, according to that nonprofit organization. Some of these types of vendors have closed because there is not enough financial support from manufacturers to make a profit. Collection locations are mostly absent along the Interstate 79 corridor from Butler County to Erie, the group claims.
“We have to make it easy and convenient in every county,” said Shannon Reiter, president of Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful in Greensburg.
She said the state’s Covered Device Recycling Act of 2010 is “flawed up and down.”
In a joint letter to state lawmakers, Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful and other related groups stated the act allows for broad and generous interpretations leading to ambiguities in the way it is applied.
It also “can allow unscrupulous operators to be part of the e-waste recycling supply chain,” which can result in pollution and added costs to local governments, the letter states.
Another initiative, state Senate Bill 800, calls for the creation of recycling convenience centers where it would be easier for people to dispose of electronics, Reiter said.
Her organization supports that bill, which has been in committee for more than a year, she said.
“At least for now we are going to be stuck with the Covered Device Recycling Act until the next (legislative) session,” Reiter said.
For more information, visit ewastepa.org.
The Westmoreland Cleanways Recycling Center, 113 Innovative Lane, Building F., Latrobe, accepts the following items from noon to 5 p.m. Mondays, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays and 8:30 a.m. to noon on the second Saturday of each month:
- Electronics, including computers and anything directly connected to them – no charge
- Televisions, monitors – whole, intact units – no charge
- Paper types must be separated and include cardboard, office paper, mixed paper and newspapers – no charge
- Passenger/light truck tires – $3 apiece off rim – $4 on rim
- Tractor trailer tires – $12 off rim – $15 on rim
- Agriculture/farm tractor tires – $20
- Highway, construction, heavy equipment tires – $30
- Freon appliances, including refrigerators, air conditioners and dehumidifiers – $20 per unit
- Scrap metal – no charge
- Lead acid batteries – no charge
- Used motor oil – no charge
- Ballasts (PCB or non-PCB) – $5 each
- Compact fluorescent – no charge
- Fluorescent tubes 4 feet or smaller, u-bend, halogen, HID, high pressure sodium, LED – $1 per tube
- Fluorescent tubes 8 feet or longer – $2 per tube
- Reusable shoes (no flip flops, slippers, singles, ski or winter boots or skates) – no charge
For information, call 724-879-4020 or email info@westmorelandcleanways.org. The organization accepts checks or cash only.