North Carolina Businesses Recycle Electronics and Keep Toxic Materials out of Landfills

by Avery Yale Kamila
Published in SOSUpdate

(SOS Update, April 2002) Old computers and televisions contain many toxic metals, including lead, cadmium and mercury. Each year, approximately 50,000 tons of TVs, computers and other used electronics are sent to North Carolina landfills.

Jim Duffy, Corporate Recycling Manger for Duke Energy, has been instrumental in coordinating an electronics recycling program for 14 North and South Carolina counties. The program, called Byte Back, is an initiative of Voices and Choices, a nonprofit organization that works to ensure a sustainable quality of life in the Central Carolinas. In the first eleven months of the program, 402 tons of electronics were recycled.

"At Duke Energy, we want to avoid future liability," Mr. Duffy said. Although businesses currently are not required to recycle electronics or dispose of them as hazardous waste, Duke Energy anticipates a day in the future when such actions will be federally mandated. Duke Energy has opted to take a leadership position on this issue, so, in 2001, the company sent 14.1 tons of electronic equipment for recycling or refurbishing.

"Businesses have been required to pay for the clean-up of landfills that contain materials that were not classified as hazardous waste at the time they were disposed," explained Mr. Duffy. "The laws have changed, and those materials are now considered hazardous waste. The companies that disposed of the waste are now legally responsible."

CompuTel is an electronics recycling and refurbishing company based in Charlotte that has benefited from the area¹s increased recycling efforts.

"We take all information and entertainment equipment," said Brett Rhinehardt, Vice President of CompuTel. "This includes telephones, fax machines, stereos, VCRs, computers and televisions."

CompuTel's customers include individuals, small companies, large companies and county recycling centers. Customers can either bring items to CompuTel or arrange for pick-up.

The company charges a fee to recycle some items. "The items that we can recover our costs on, such as computers, we¹ll accept at no charge," Mr. Rhinehardt said. "Other items, such as printers, stereos and VCRs, we charge a small fee to cover our costs. TVs and computer monitors have an extra charge that covers the hazardous waste disposal fees. In addition, if an item has an after market value, we do refurbish."

Currently, CompuTel has five full-time employees and sees the need for their services increasing in the future. "This is a growing business," said Mr. Rhinehardt.

Recycling and Reusing Old Computers
Staples stores across the country recently hosted a computer take-back day. Newer model machines were refurbished and given to children¹s charities. Older machines were taken apart and recycled.

IBM has a worldwide product take back program. For $29.99, U.S. customers can return computers and printers (even ones made by competitors) to IBM for recycling.