FARMINGTON – Residents of the greater Franklin County area are advised to hold onto old or broken electronics another week, with the 8th annual “Earth Day Every Day” electronics recycling event scheduled for Saturday, April 25.
As a community service project, old and broken electronics, otherwise referred to as “e-waste,” will be collected for Maine Department of Environmental Protection approved recycling and disposal “Earth Day Every Day!” event on Saturday, April 25 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., rain or shine, at the parking lot adjacent to Aubuchon Hardware on Routes 2 & 4.
Property owner Jim Meader has generously made this convenient location available for 7 years. Old South First Congregation UCC congregation has partnered with EPA approved “e-Waste Recycling Solutions” of Auburn to provide an opportunity for responsible recycling of TVs, computers and lap tops, monitors, printers, photocopiers, scanners, microwaves, DVD and VCR players, stereos, camcorders, fax machines, phones, gaming and other electronic devices. For a list of other electronics that will be accepted, go to www.ewastemaine.com.
The e-waste drop off is not limited to just Farmington residents. There is no set fee for this disposal service, however, free-will monetary donations will be accepted to support Old South Church’s community service and outreach programs.
According to Electronics TakeBack Coalition, more than 50 million metric tons of e-waste is disposed of worldwide each year. Less than 25 percent of the e-waste produced in the U.S. is responsibly recycled.
However, since 2000 the amount of recycled e-waste has more than doubled.
The remainder of the disposed of e-waste is buried or incinerated, causing toxins such as lead, mercury, and cadmium to leach into the soil or enter the atmosphere. The health dangers of extremely high levels of lead are damage to the nervous systems, blood and kidneys. Some companies collect e-waste and ship it illegally overseas where it ends up on the black market in countries like China, India and Africa creating environmental and health nightmares.
In the “International Business Times”appeared a December 2013 article titled “Used Electronics Don’t Die: New E-Waste Map Reveals Worldwide Toll of Discarded Electronics”, authored by Kukil Bora describing a new e-waste world map that was created by Solving the E-Waste Problem Initiative to be a “constantly updated, map-linked database showing e-waste volume by country.” He stated that it “presents comparable annual data from 184 countries” with the US producing almost six times more e-waste per capita than China. Each year the number of electronics purchases increases resulting in tons more e-waste. The National Retail Federation estimated that 7.5 million new TVs were purchased for the 2013 Superbowl.
According to the EPA, e-waste is the fastest growing municipal waste category in America. Along with the toxic heavy metals, cell phones also contain silver, gold, copper and palladium. For every 1 million cell phones recycled thousands of pounds of precious metals can be recovered. The value of lost precious metals from dumped cell phones has been estimated at over $60 million just in gold and silver every year.
Old South First Congregational Church, UCC congregation is very excited to offer this annual, much anticipated e-waste recycling event during Earth Day week. Any questions regarding the E-Waste disposal and recycling contact the church office at 778-0424 or 491-5919.
Let us all be better stewards of our precious planet earth. No early drop offs please.
