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Electronic Recycling Powering Down

What do you do with those old televisions and computer monitors at home now that fewer places are taking them to be recycled? And why are counties and one big r...
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What do you do with those old televisions and computer monitors at home now that fewer places are taking them to be recycled?

And why are counties and one big retailer saying "no thanks?"

This month, Best Buy stores in Pennsylvania stopped accepting old televisions and monitors, citing a state law that prevents the company from charging for the service.

Jay Talerico of Old Forge found one of the only places in northeastern Pennsylvania taking old televisions for free: the Lackawanna Recycling Center in Scranton.

“It’s awesome. I put it out for the garbage man, put my garbage stickers on it, they didn’t take it,” said Talerico. “It’s better than dumping it. I don’t litter or nothing like that.”

Landfills aren't allowed to take those kinds of electronics thanks to a state law that went into effect in 2010. The Covered Device Recycling Act requires companies that make certain relics pay for them to be recycled after they're picked up by the truckload.

“We have an electronics buyer, they’ll come in, send a truck in. We’ll load the truck up and sell it to them,” said Stephen Chorba, supervisor at the Lackawanna Recycling Center.

At the Wayne County Recycling Center outside Honesdale, those trucks have stopped coming to pick up electronics. The market for their components dropped and officials said the state law failed to keep the companies doing the recycling from losing money.

“Televisions are much lighter and we have a lot of old equipment that’s much heavier. So they’re meeting their quota on that stuff,” said Wayne County Solid Waste Director Randy Heller.

Wayne County suspended its electronic recycling program this weekend and part of the reason for that is, according to county officials, a state law says the county cannot stockpile the electronics on-site and wait for another vendor to come along and take them away.

Heller is cautiously optimistic that state lawmakers will tweak the current law to make an incentive for companies and counties to recycle televisions and monitors again.

“In the meantime, I’m telling people unfortunately if they can hang onto it for a while until such time that that happens,” said Heller.

Again, this month Best Buy stopped accepting televisions and monitors saying state law doesn't allow the company to charge people dropping off their devices to help pay for the rising costs of electronic recycling.

The Lackawanna Recycling Center, run by a private company, does still recycle electronics because according to employees the facility collects much more than other places in the area.

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