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Electronic Recycling this Saturday
The City of Houston has collaborated with CompuCycle for almost four years to collect obsolete, broken, and surplus electronics at the Kingwood Metro Lot on the first Saturday of every month from 9 am to 3 pm. The City does have to pay a fee to CompuCycle to recycle TV’s and Computer monitors. Unfortunately it costs more to recycle these items then CompuCycle is able to re-coop from the materials that they are able to reclaim. Most of the glass in these units must be treated as hazardous materials.
Last month the City asked CompuCycle to begin asking people dropping off these items if they are residents of the City. The City does not want to spend their tax dollars on non residents. (It is sort or ironic that they don’t ask if you live in the City when the charge non residents City sales tax. CompuCycle was asked not to accept TV’s or computer monitors from non residents. If you got caught in this haggle over tax dollars, we are sorry. We did not find out about it until the day before the collection in August. Harris County has no collection site for electronics and we think that is a shame. We wonder how many computers, TV’s and other electronics get buried in County trash every month. Since Kingwood is surrounded by Harris County, many of those non City residents have taken advantage of the pick-up in Kingwood.
So what is a non City resident to do with their old TV’s and Monitors? Since these units do have hazardous materials in them, the State has ruled that they must be recycled and furthermore, anyone selling new units must also take back for recycling “old” units. Now, if you bought it at Best Buy---take the old one back to them. Goodwill also will normally take any kind of electronics. CompuCycle will continue to take all other electronics at the monthly pick-up.
Here is their statement: The City of Houston Solid Waste Department and CompuCycle are providing monthly one day E-Recyclable collection events on the first Saturday of the month at the Kingwood Metro Park & Ride lot. CompuCycle - Houston’s first R2 certified electronic solutions provider – destroys all hard drive data and recycles all electronics responsibly, safely and securely. The City of Houston pays a disposal fee for TVs and Monitors for City of Houston residents only. This is a City of Houston sponsored program and CompuCycle needs to follow their guidelines. As directed by the City of Houston, residents dropping off TVs and Monitors can only be City of Houston residents. All other residents must recycle their electronics according to their city’s guidelines.
In spite of not taking these items in August, residents did drop off 17,723 pounds of electronics. Great job Kingwood, with the help of a few non Kingwood residents!
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Contamination of Recycled Materials
As avid recyclers, we sometimes are our own “worst enemies”. We try to recycle things that are not really recyclable. Recycling is a business and even the City tries to at least break even or make a little money by offering this service. We all know that burying things like plastic, metals, paper, glass and cardboard in a landfill is a lose lose situation. We lose the commodity forever and we lose the good jobs that could be generated if the items were recycled.
We all know we should not contaminate the things we recycle in our curbside bins or at the weekend recycling center at the Metro lot. But we also contaminate when we include things in those bins that are not meant to go in them. It is amazing what goes into the bins at the Metro lot. If it is not meant to go into the bin, it will probably wind up at the landfill but will have to be transported to the recycling plant first, someone will have to grab it out of the stream of other recyclable materials and then it will have to be hauled off the landfill. Best just to put it out for the trash in the first place!
At the recycling plant where all the materials are separated, machines do much of the work. When a human has to intervene, it costs money and recycling becomes less profitable or maybe not profitable at all. So, do not put cardboard boxes in any bin except the cardboard bin. And, break them down so they take up less space. Do not put plastic bags in any bin. A machine cannot sort items in a plastic bag and the bag may get caught in the machinery and cause it to shut down.
In the nearby pictures you will see what it looks like inside the collection bins at the Metro lot. As we often say, “Lets Recycle Right”.
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Colored Glass Recycling
If you recycle your glass bottles and containers at the weekend Park & Ride lot, you probably noticed, that you are asked to deposit your clear glass in a separate dumpster than the one for brown or colored glass. It is our understanding the both the green and the brown glass are used for the same purposes. Thus there is no need to keep those separate. The City stopped putting an extra bin for green glass out quite some time ago. Unfortunately they have not changed the signs on the bins. They do try to keep the clear glass bin from being contaminated with colored glass as clear glass is worth more as a commodity than the colored glass. So please put your green and brown glass in the brown glass only bin.
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How Can You Give Feedback or Ask Questions?
Visit our web site! Contact us via email. We also maintain a Facebook page. Like us or Follow us!
Call us 713-206-0558 and leave a message. One of our volunteers will get back to you as fast as possible.
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