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Getting Rid of E-Waste in Northumberland County

There has been an overwhelming response this week to an electronic recycling event in Northumberland County. In part because people have been tossing appliances...

There has been an overwhelming response this week to an electronic recycling event in Northumberland County.

In part because people have been tossing appliances and electronics that were damaged in the flood.

At the Coal Township Recycling Center near Shamokin, you'll find technologies from times gone by, fom turntables, to TVs that aren't flat.

"Things like this, in 100 years they'll still be TVs or whatever they are, they're not biodegradable by any means so the environmental benefits are kind of self explanatory," said township recycling coordinator Charles Shuey.

He said e-waste is almost anything that has a cord, or that runs on batteries. This is the second weekly e-waste collection, and so far they have received 30,000 pounds of old electronics.

"Since they started recycling them, instead of taking it out on the mountain like everybody else does, we'd take it here," said Robert Wariki of Coal Township.

Starting in 2013, dumping e-waste in landfills will be illegal in Pennsylvania. So, officials at the Coal Township Recycling Center said they plan to make the e-waste drop off a regular thing, every Thursday.

The old electronics go from the warehouse, to a tractor trailer, then to a company in Pittsburgh that pays the township by the ton.

"I think that, now that it's cost effective, I think other recycling centers will get on board," said Shuey.

E-waste collection in Coal Township is every Thursday from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. You do not have to be a township resident to drop off something.

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