The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

State News

September 9, 2010

Electronics ban looms for landfills

Associated Press

CHARLESTON — An upcoming ban on the disposal of electronic equipment in West Virginia landfills has state and local agencies looking to create recycling programs.

Beginning Jan. 1, televisions, computers and electronic devices with video screens 4 inches and larger cannot be put in landfills. The Legislature approved the ban earlier this year at the urging of bill sponsor Sen. Karen Facemyer, R-Jackson. “The driving force was to make sure we get rid of it responsibly,” Facemyer told the Charleston Daily Mail. “When that stuff is dumped in a landfill, it’s always going to be in there just as it was the day it was dumped.”

The state Solid Waste Management Board says the agency is working with groups to develop diversion plans for electronics.

“We’ve tried to, as we develop this, get as many voices as we can,” said Carol Throckmorton, with the board. “It’s still in creation stage. We are moving along, moving along, but we don’t have anything on line at this point.”

The board has been working since 2002 to divert electronic scrap from landfills through various collection efforts, mostly occurring through collection drives that take place in counties once or twice a year.

According to the board, 7.3 million pounds of electronic scrap has been collected through various drives since 2002.

Electronic devices can contain toxic metals and flame-retardant additives, and present a problem for recyclers.

However, even when the plastic is separated, re-processors have had difficulty reusing the material. Most plastics used in electronic devices contain flame-retardant additives - such as bromine and chlorine - which can degrade when the plastic is reprocessed.

Currently, there are only two West Virginia-based firms that specialize in sorting and deconstructing electronic waste: Afterlife Electronics in Elizabeth and PC Renewal in Morgantown.

The state Department of Environmental Protection currently maintains the Covered Electronic Devices Grant Program, which provides up to $40,000 to assist municipalities in electronic scrap recovery efforts.

Last fiscal year, the grant supplied over $273,000 to several cities and county solid waste authorities for collection efforts.

While the final details have not been finalized with regard to exactly where the scrap will go, Facemyer said the legislation was intended to encourage the market for properly disposing of potentially hazardous materials. “We’re trying to develop the local market for recycling,” she said.

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