County’s Free E-Waste Recycling Event Collects 400,000 Pounds of Unwanted Electronics For Safe Disposal

June 18, 2012
Casey Slaughter Becker, Office of the County Executive (608) 267-8823 or cell (608) 843-8858, or Jan Neitzel-Knox at Dane County Public Works, (608) 266-4029.
County Executive

Dane County’s fourth annual free e-waste recycling event this past weekend was a huge success, preventing an estimated 400,000 pounds of broken or unwanted electronics from cluttering area homes and clogging the county’s landfill, Dane County Executive Joe Parisi announced today.

 

“We not only recycled hundreds of thousands of pounds of e-waste and helped families with some housecleaning, but we also kept a lot of toxic materials out of our landfill,” Parisi said.  “This free event is convenient for our residents and good for our lands and lakes.”

 

People who attended Saturday’s event at the Alliant Energy Center dropped off 100,000 more pounds of computers, printers, scanners, television sets, cell phones and other electronics than last year – enough to fill 16 semi trucks.  The items were sorted quickly and efficiently by more than 100 volunteers and there were few problems with lines or waiting.

 

All electronic materials were responsibly handled in an environmentally, safe and secure manner, using the best data wiping software available.

 

This year’s event was made possible in part through the county’s partnerships with several private supporters – Vintage Tech, LLC, Habitat ReStore East, and Wal-Mart West on Watts Road, which donated water for the event’s volunteers.

 

After four years thee event, believed to be the largest of its kind in North America, has helped prevent an estimated 2 million pounds of electronics from going into area landfills. 

 

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