By Angela Hatton
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkms/local-wkms-913208.mp3
Murray, KY – It's likely you have an old T.V., cell phone, computer or other electronic device around your home, or in the trash. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Electronic waste or E-scrap constitutes between 1.5 and 2 percent of solid waste. Using that figure, the Kentucky Division of Waste Management estimates residents generate 100-thousand tons of e-scrap each year. As the amount of e-scrap increases, municipal and independent programs to recycle electronics are also increasing . . . and generating revenue. Angela Hatton has details.
P.C. Re-Store in Murray is a computer repair and restoration shop. Computers in different states of disrepair sit on tables in the front and back of the shop, laptops with their guts hanging out, skeletal looking computer cases that glitter with circuitry. Owner Andrew Pilgrim says in the two years the business has been open, he's built a collection of spare parts. He points to two boxes.
" We try to keep as many as we can. Course we're limited on space.' Oh my gosh, look at that.' Yeah, here's a box of old motherboards. . . .'"
The motherboard box is overflowing. Next to it is a box of heat syncs and computer fans. Pilgrim also points out two large drawers, one filled with laptop screens, the other with laptop keyboards. Pilgrim ends up with a lot of old laptop parts. He says that's because when a customer comes in with a frizzled motherboard, it costs almost as much to repair the computer as it does to buy a new one.
"People are like, well, I can go spend another $100 to $200 and have a brand new laptop,' and that's just--a lot of people are deciding that's what they'd rather do, and then they have this broken laptop, they're like, well, I don't want it.'"
Pilgrim says he hasn't run out of room yet to store all his e-scrap. He credits that partly to an agreement with an independent scrap metal dealer who picks up e-scrap like computer casings.
"This is the kind of stuff that he will take and just pull all the plastic away from the metal. Uh, I've got an old LCD screen, some old broken hard drives in there, and he's actually got a motherboard he said he thought he could get some gold off of, which is some of the leads are actually gold on the motherboards."
"From our perspective at the division of waste management, the materials that are in e-scrap are valuable resource and to me, it's almost criminal to throw them in the landfill."
Tom Heil is an environmental scientist in Kentucky's recycling and local assistance branch. He says e-scrap contains vast amounts of copper, and smaller amounts of silver and gold. In January 2009, the state of Kentucky brokered a deal with the company Creative Recycling to pick up all e-scrap generated from state agencies. Heil says as of June, the state has generated over 2,000 tons of e-scrap, and those who recycled their electronics received approximately $86,500 in total out of the bargain. Heil adds not every piece of e-scrap has enough valuable material on it to turn a profit.
"For instance, monitors. In most cases, I don't know of any e-scrap dealers who pay for monitors although most of them will take them for free. You have televisions, whether they're flat-screen or the cathode ray tube type of televisions that they actually charge for and the charges are anywhere from about $5 to anywhere from $10 - $15 apiece."
Another draw for county and city government is the savings they receive from not trucking e-scrap to their landfills. Hopkins County recently began a trial run e-scrap program. A company out of Knoxville, Tennessee is doing collections for free. County Waste Supervisor Roy Day says for each ton that doesn't go in the landfill, the county saves $36. It isn't a huge amount, but Day says residents show a demand for e-scrap recycling. In the past few weeks, they've filled more than 400 cubic feet of boxes with electronics.
Bob Johnson is Jackson Purchase Program Coordinator and works with Paducah's Recycle Now initiative. Johnson says Recycle Now took in 55 tons of e-scrap last year.
"It looks like for 2010 we're going to collect almost twice as much e-scrap as we did for 2009."
More electronic recycling businesses have started too. GreenWorks of Owensboro began a little less than three years ago. Co-owner Bill Stewart has picked up e-scrap in western Kentucky counties, driving as far as Caldwell and Trigg for collections.
"When we get our debt payment done, get our equipment paid for, and what have you, we hope to make a small profit doing it. But it's not a lucrative business; you're working on pennies on the pound for the product that we produce. And not to sound like we're saints, we get a good feeling doing it because we're doing something for the environment."
Profits for e-cycling companies could go up, if legislation to classify some e-scrap as hazardous waste passes the General Assembly. At least 13 states have bans to keep e-scrap out of landfills. Proposals to do so in Kentucky so far have failed to gain legislative support.
"I guess you could say it's kind of like going to Vegas. We're betting on the come. We're betting that the legislation passes and that the market will pick up."
P.C. Re-Store's Andrew Pilgrim says the trend in the computer market is for processing power to double every two years. He says many businesses and individuals match their buying to that cycle, even if their current devices are working fine. It's consumer behavior that means a steady stream of possible e-scrap.