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Green Star’s SUMMARY OF THE MAY 9 & 10, 2003 EVENT THANK YOU TO THE VOLUNTEERS, SPONSORS,
Final Figures Web-Based Alaska Materials Exchange Program Two-Day Electronics Recycling Event What Was Accepted? Costs Certificate of Recycling Where Did It All Go? Data Destruction, Information Security & Software Licenses Volunteers Sponsors & Donors Due to the environmental impacts associated with the disposal of computers, monitors, and other used electronics, Green Star developed a program to provide an environmentally, socially, and economically responsible solution for Anchorage and the surrounding area. The solution involved a two-pronged approach. First, a year-round, web-based electronics exchange program, whereby reusable computers and electronics are matched with new users. The second prong was a two-day used electronics recycling event for Anchorage organizations and residents on May 9 and 10, 2003, respectively. The event was held in conjunction with the Anchorage City-Wide Clean-Up Week. The combination of these two approaches provides a convenient and efficient drop-off for old electronics, combined with the year-round option to exchange newer model equipment directly between donor and recipient without necessitating a trip to the recycling venue.
Based on a survey of the 486 electronics recycling programs in the U.S. in the past three years, a city of Anchorage’s size can expect to collect between 87,000 to 175,000 pounds of used electronics at a one-day drop-off event. Due to the general high involvement of Anchorage residents, the fact that Alaska has the highest per capita number of computers of any state in the U.S., the pairing of the event with the very visible Citywide Cleanup, the inclusion of government and private organizations, the higher than normal marketing push, and the fact that this is the first local recycling option for electronics, Green Star planned the event around the 175,000-pound level. We were quite surprised by how much we surpassed those numbers. The Electronics Recycling event was a great success. The event generated 280,328 pounds (more than 140 tons) of electronics for recycling. This surpassed estimated quantities based on cities of our size by 60%. The material was shipped in 15 trailers, on 554 pallets, to Tacoma. On Friday, 152 businesses, organizations, and agencies participated. Businesses recycled 2,753 monitors and TVs and 110,000 pounds of other electronics. On Saturday, 929 households participated in the event. Households recycled 1,039 monitors and 35,500 pounds of other electronics. Web-Based Alaska Materials Exchange Program Green Star established a web-based materials exchange whereby organizations and individuals with good quality computer and electronic equipment in working order can list their unwanted equipment on Green Star’s web site. This program allows for year-round exchange of equipment, keeping unwanted equipment that could not be stored until spring out of the landfill, and reducing the rate of new equipment purchases. Additional benefits include the ability to sell equipment with value, the immediacy of new equipment postings, and the ability for donor and recipient to make convenient arrangements for the transfer of goods.
Anchorage's Electronics Recycling Days was held at the former Carrs store on the corner of Dimond and Old Seward. This facility provided easy access and parking, plenty of space, and truck loading docks in the back. Shopping carts and flatbed carts were available in the parking lot for participant use. Once inside, participants filled out some paperwork, checked in their equipment, paid their recycling fee and received a reciept with a certificate of recycling. Residents, local businesses and organizations, government agencies, and schools alike were invited to participate in the recycling event. Once received, equipment was sorted into palletized Gaylord boxes by type: monitors and TVs together, and computers, peripherals and media in separate boxes. Additionally, participants recycled their cardboard boxes used to carry equipment. Some cardboard was used to package the materials; the rest was recycled. When the Gaylords were full, they were weighed and stacked into 40-foot trailers by forklift. The trailers were moved to the Port of Anchorage for shipment to an electronics recycler in Tacoma, Washington. Almost all of the labor on this day was volunteer labor. Businesses and organizations began arriving on Friday as early as 7:15 am with tractor trailer loads of electronics. Th doors opened at 10:00 am and the event was busy until the 4:00 pm closing time. Palletized trailer loads were delivered to one of two available loading docks behind the facility. Loose material was delivered on carts through the front door of the facility. Businesses had the option to pay with check, cash, credit card, or invoice. Individuals arrived at the location between 10:00 am and 4:00 pm on Saturday, May 10, 2003 with their electronics. Individuals could pay using cash or check. All material was loaded onto pallets, either stretch wrapped or in Gaylord boxes; weighed; labeled; and loaded onto trailers. Most electronic devices were accepted, including: televisions, computer monitors, computers/laptops, keyboards, mice, modems, external drives, small scanners, printer, copy machines, cables, other computer peripherals, VCRs, DVD players, stereos, radios, phones, fax machines, camcorders, electric typewriters, and most media (floppies, CDs, DVDs, tapes), telephones, cell phones, and similar products. Businesses, organizations, and government agencies were charged a small recycling fee to offset program costs. Household rates were subsidized by our granting agencies and sponsors to lower them to an appealing level. - Businesses and Organizations -- $15 per computer monitor or television, and $0.30/pound for everything else. - Households and Individuals -- $5 per computer monitor or television, and $0.05/pound for everything else. Any company with a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) hazardous waste generator number or status (small quantity generator or large quantity generator) were asked to make a voluntary contribution to help ensure the future success of the program. Many of these businesses saved hundreds, if not housands of dollars by recycling their equipment through Green Star instead of disposing of it as a hazardous material or shipping it themselves to a recycler. Additionally, those who no longer qualify for the conditionally exempt small quantity generator status due to the weight of monitors generated also were asked to make an additional contribution. Organizations and individuals received a certificate of recycling for equipment they dropped off. It certified that a named recycler took ownership of their equipment, that it is being destructively recycled through a reputable U.S. recycler, that all information contained within the machine has been permanently destroyed, that more than 95% of the equipment will be recycled into new products and that none of the material will be shipped overseas, where e-waste is a serious health and environmental problem. Ninety-five to 99 percent (by weight) of the equipment dropped off at the May 9-10 event will be recycled into new products. Leaded glass will go to a smelter where it will be remade into leaded glass for future TVs and monitors. Metals will be resold on domestic metals markets. Plastics will go into new plastic items, such as plastic lumber. More details are provided below. From Anchorage, all of the materials were barged out of the Port of Anchorage in trailer containers to the Port of Tacoma. Philip Services Corporation, the recycling company that contracted with Green Star, accepted the materials and shipped them to NxtCycle, a division of National Environmental Waste. NxtCycle has processing facilities in Arizona and Utah. Glass The video display component of most computers monitors and televisions is a cathode ray tube (CRT). The typical CRT contains 15 to 90 pounds of glass. To this glass, lead and other elements are added to protect the user from X-rays generated within the CRT. Disposal in landfills is not the most sound management option for waste CRTs because of the high quantities of lead in each screen. Other management options include recycling the leaded glass include processing for use in lead smelting or glass-to-glass recycling, which involves using the glass as an ingredient to manufacture new CRT glass. The monitors and TVs collected during Anchorage's Electronics Recycling event will by part of this closed loop glass-to-glass recycling process. Once the monitors are dismantled in Utah, the CRT glass is sent to Envirocycle for further processing. The inmates dismantle about 20,000 monitors per month. Envirocycle, a company of the Matco Environmental Group, has recycled CRTs since 1991. The facilities are located in Hallstead, PA, and Stowe, OH. All intact monitors that Envirocycle receives are inspected for the possibility of resale. All other units are dismantled. The average processing time is two weeks. Within one month, the glass cullet is back into the commerce stream as a new CRT. The glass is used to make new funnel glass (the back of the CRT glass portion because it is simply leaded glass. The panel glass (the front of the screen) contains other chemicals. A small portion of the glass -- less than 1/10 of 1% -- is not usable for new CRT glass. This glass is sent to primary lead smelters for reuse. Envirocycle currently employs about 50 people and is currently investing in research and development to improve the dismantling technology. Metals Copper is the primary metal found in wires and cabling. These items are baled and shipped to copper smelters for copper recovery. Circuit boards are ground and shipped to copper smelters as well. The copper and small amounts of precious metals are recovered and the other circuit board material is useful for its BTU value during metal recovery. Aluminum structural pieces are baled and sold to aluminum smelters. Steel housings are baled and shipped to ferrous smelters (foundries). Plastic Plastics generated from electronics waste are primarily ABS (acrybutidiene styrene) from keyboards, monitors, and CPU housings, and HIPS (high density polystyrene) from televisions. HIPS is regranulated and sold to companies that pelletize it and reuse it in injection molding to make new consumer products such as televisions, handheld computer games and similar products. ABS plastics include about seven or eight different resin types. The ABS is cleaned and baled and send to plastics recyclers. The primary company is CCPack with facilities in Pheonix and Reno. Another is MBA Polymers in northern California. These companies can either use the product commingled or separate it further by resin type and pelletize it for sale to end markets. Other Components Any wood recovered is chipped and used for compost. The one item that is discarded is the phenolic laminate common in old console televisions. This is estimated to be less than 1/100 of 1% of the material processed.
If you recycled computers through Green Star’s May recycling event, your hard drive was destructively recycled, permanently destroying any remaining contents information in the process. If you plan to donate your computer for reuse, the following information may be helpful in removing information from your hard drive. http://www.tinyapps.org If you plan to give away equipment for reuse (the environmentally preferable way to get rid of your equipment), be sure you either do not have important information stored on you hard drive, give it to a trusted user, permanently erase the hard drive, or remove the hard drive before donating it. Green Star is not responsible for any information on computers exchanged through our web site. Additionally, be sure to make it clear to the recipient whether you intend to transfer the software licenses of any software contained in the computer to keep you compliant with your software agreements. More than 100 volunteers helped with this event, in both the planning and implement phases. Every one of the volunteers worked hard. We received numerous comments about how efficient and friendly the volunteers were. Thanks to the following folks:
This event would not happen without the generous support of many local organizations. Funding has been provided by BP and a grant from the Municipality of Anchorage Solid Waste Services. Other sponsors and donors include:
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