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 2009 E-rase Your E-waste Event
E-rase your E-waste in 2009! Dates set for September 11-12, 2009
E-rase Your E-waste wins 2009 White House "Closing the Circle" award
E-rase your E-waste in 2008!
● E-waste recycling event again exceeds previous years totals
● Final Report of Sidney, MT 2008 event (PDF; 1066 KB)
● Dates Set for 2008 E-rase Your E-waste
● Alternative Collection Days for 2008
E-rase your E-waste in 2007!
E-rase your E-waste in 2006!
Organize your own "e-rase your e-waste" event!
● Helpful templates, info to download
What is e-waste?
What hazards are in e-waste?
Benefits of E-cycling
Related Links
Results from our community-wise e-cycling events
● Final Report of Sidney, MT 2008 event (PDF; 1066 KB)
● Final Report of Sidney, MT 2007 event (PDF; 1230 KB)
● Final Report of Sidney, MT 2006 event (PDF; 1297 KB)
● Final Report of Sidney, MT 2005 event (PDF; 1511 KB)
10 tons recycled at weekend e-cycling event in Sidney
 More than 75 area residents, businesses, schools and government agencies recycled in excess of 19,720 pounds of electronic waste under the 2009 “E-rase your E-waste” program, according to event organizers.
That’s the second highest total collected since the program began five years ago, according to event co-coordinators Cindy Eleson of Richland Opportunities, Inc. and Jackie Couture of the Agricultural Research Service. The 2009 total was exceeded only by last year’s phenomenal 46,040 lbs. which included a one-time collection of more than 25,000 lbs. in outdated computer equipment that had been saved up by local schools.
“We want to thank everyone again for the great participation this year,” Eleson said. “For the third year in a row we’ve kept 10 Tons of e-waste out of our local landfill as a result of this event.”
 Eleson and Couture are quick to thank the many local residents, businesses, organizations and schools who chose to “e-rase their e-waste” in 2009. Promotional support by local print and broadcast media, and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality and matching funding from Sidney Health Center, the City of Sidney, the Richland County Commissioners, Lower Yellowstone REA (all of Sidney) and Drill Iron Consulting and Bill’s Back 40 of Williston all helped once again to spur participation in the event, they noted.
“We also want to thank the Richland County Solid Waste Department for letting us collect and store e-waste at the county shop during the month of August,” Butch Renders, another committee member, said. “Every year we’ve had people tell us they can’t make our weekend event and then ask if we can take items another day. “With the help of the Solid Waste Department they could and did, bringing in over 1,100 pounds of e-waste to recycle.
“And again, a huge thank you to all our very dedicated volunteers this year who helped load all those tons of e-waste,” Renders said. “In particular, we want to thank Stan Lindblom, Betty Reisinger, and Bill Forrester for their efforts at our weekend event. Stan in particular has been helping regularly at this event for the past several years. In addition, we also want to thank Deak Reisinger, who assisted with our Thursday collections at the Richland County Solid Waste site.” Renders noted that all four of those individuals are with the local Retired Seniors Volunteer Program, which has provided volunteers to help with the weekend collection since its inception in 2005.
In addition to Sidney’s fifth year event, Williston, ND held its own third year companion collection this past weekend, pulling in around 15,000 pounds of e-waste for recycling in that community as of early Saturday morning, meaning the joint total topped 17 Tons! (Final figures for the Williston event were not yet available at press time.)
“This is a fun cooperative project,” Couture noted. “With the two communities working together, we can share an e-cyler and promotion efforts to help keep costs down and still get the word out in the region.”
E-rase Your E-waste wins White House
"Closing the Circle" award
Richland County’s grass-roots “E-rase your E-waste” community electronics recycling program has earned an honorable mention in the 2009 White House Closing the Circle Awards program for electronic stewardship. The national CTC awards were announced this past month at an official ceremony at the National Insitute of Health in Bethesda, MD.
“We’re very pleased and excited about this award,” Jackie Couture, co-chair of the local “E-rase your E-waste” committee and Safety Officer with the USDA-ARS Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory in Sidney, said. “In particular we’re pleased that this award specifically recognizes the contributions of all our community partners rather than just one agency or individual.” While the award nomination had to come from a federal facility – in this case, the Sidney Agricultural Research Service lab – the award itself puts a special emphasis on federal entities partnering with community groups and individuals, hence the “closing the circle” name, Couture explained.
Participants in the local “E-rase your E-waste” committee, originally formed in 2005 from interested members of the county’s Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC), include Couture and Co-chair Cindy Eleson (Richland Opportunities Inc.); Butch Renders (Richland County Disaster and Emergency Services); Brian Fay (Sidney Health Center); Kim Youngquist (Richland County Health Department); Rita Jacobson (Retired and Senior Volunteer Program); Zach Yockim (Richland County IT Department); Diane Kalvoda (Lower Yellowstone REA); Julie Brodhead (Richland County Health Department); Russ Houtari (Richland County Public Works); Kelly Logan (County Sanitarian) and Beth Redlin (Sidney ARS). In addition, Midrivers Communication; Sidney city and Richland County officials, and the county’s Solid Waste Committee have also worked with the program to help advertise and offset costs for participants, as well as providing additional drop off times and places.
“It’s definitely a group effort,” Renders noted. “And the local participation has been terrific. I’m amazed at how our community has supported this program by doubling the amount kept out of the landfill every year!”
The national Closing the Circle (CTC) awards are presented annually by the White House Office of the Federal Environmental Executive to recognize outstanding achievements of Federal facilities and their community partners in promoting environmental stewardship. According to a press release announcing the 2009 award winners, nationwide, there were 200+ nominations received in seven different categories (mostly from larger and/or regional Federal offices), with only 15 CTC winners and 13 honorable mentions awarded. Each category included a possible civilian and military award, and there was no obligation to give an award if there were no worthy candidates.
“Looking at the size of some of the entities winning CTC awards, I’m amazed and thrilled that they chose to recognize our efforts at that level,” Couture said.
According to committee members, the unique rural e-waste collection program began here in 2005, when the E-rase your E-waste team initiated only the second ever electronics recycling event held in the state of Montana, and the first in a remote rural area. Since then the program has recycled more than 41 tons of e-waste in annual collection events, 23 tons of it collected just this past year (despite local residents having to pay for the privilege). The inaugural event was a collaborative effort by ARS representatives and community members (drawn from the county’s Local Emergency Preparedness Committee) that continues today. Through its efforts, this federal-local partnership has created a model program for electronics recycling in rural areas, which it readily shares with other communities throughout the country via a website it established that includes free templates of the program logo, posters, brochures, tip sheets and more for others to use in their setting up their own collection events. Communities and schools in 7 states, not all of them rural, are known to have taken up the challenge, adapting materials from the website to set up events in their areas. The program’s colorful logo was also adopted by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality for its pilot community e-waste collection efforts in Montana in 2006. E-rase your E-waste team members have also been invited to speak about the program at a number of local, state and regional recycling and solid waste association meetings.
Organize your own community-wide e-cycling event!
This web page provides planning and other information to anyone interested in recycling electronic waste in their local community. It describes how a small town in eastern Montana developed and hosted its own “E-rase your E-waste” event, and how you can do it, too. It even provides some ready-made promotional materials for general use, as well as samples of letters, brochures and posters from the original event to spur your own ideas (see below).
Although small in scope – Sidney, MT has a population of only about 5,000 people, with its home county just topping 10,000 – the project had a big impact after publicity surrounding it attracted the interest of state and even regional waste/recycling officials. As an example, the Sidney “E-rase your E-waste” effort prompted the Montana Department of Environmental Quality to streamline its permitting procedure for community-sponsored e-cycling events, and regional EPA officials are sharing details of the project with other communities across their region.
The June 2005 e-cycling effort in Sidney was initiated by Jackie Couture, a Health and Safety Officer at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service laboratory (USDA-ARS) in Sidney. Couture, concerned about the hazards of dumping outdated lab and computer equipment in local landfills, approached the Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) of which she is the chairman and proposed the idea to conduct a community wide “e-cycling” event in Sidney. LEPC representatives embraced the idea and a short time later local emergency and volunteer agencies (CERT and RSVP) joined in support of the effort.
The core group in place, Couture and other representatives from the USDA-ARS laboratory in Sidney identified an e-cycler for the event and developed the “E-rase your E-waste” slogan and logo to promote it. As word of the effort got out, organizers discovered they had hit a nerve. Phone calls and requests for more information from other communities and offers of assistance were received from the general public and from state and other government and private solid waste officials.
As a result of that interest, organizers decided to record the steps they took to set up the event and make that information, along with samples and templates of its promotional materials, available to anyone and everyone interested in establishing their own e-cycling project. That information – and more – is found below.
We'd also like to hear from you if you've hosted a successful e-cycling effort in your area and have tips for others. We'll share them here as well. Happy E-cycling!
E-mail us your Feedback: webmaster@sidney.ars.usda.gov
Or send information to:
USDA-ARS-NPARL
P.O. Box 463
Sidney, MT 59270
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Materials to Download
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What is e-waste?
E-waste is a popular, informal name for electronic products nearing the end of their "useful life." Computers, televisions, VCRs, stereos, copiers, mobile phones and fax machines are common electronic products and make up one of the fastest growing segments of our nation's waste stream. The National Safety Council projects that nearly 250 million computers will become obsolete in the next five years and mobile phones are being discarded at a rate of 130 million per year.
What hazards are found in e-waste?
Computer monitors and older TV picture tubes contain an average of four pounds of lead and require special handling at the end of their lives. In addition to lead, electronics can contain chromium, cadmium, mercury, beryllium, nickel, zinc, and brominated flame retardants, presenting problems if not disposed of properly. Extending the life of your electronics or donating your most up-to-date and working electronics can save you money and save valuable resources. Safely recycling outdated electronics can promote the safe management of hazardous components and supports the recovery and reuse of valuable materials.
Benefits of e-cycling for humans and the environment
Using proper disposal methods helps to keep harmful metals such as the lead found in computer montiors out of landfills, which is also resulting in the protection of nearby ground water supplies from potential metal contamination from landfill leachate. Electronic products that can be reused, result in less energy being required to produce new ones and this saves energy and reduces pollution. Sometimes recycling computers can create a supply of parts and materials that can be used on the manufacture of new products or to refurbish older ones.
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Related Links
Additional Information:
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Dates set for 2009 E-rase your E-waste event
The dates for Richland County’s fifth annual “E-rase your E-waste” event have been set for Friday and Saturday, Sept. 11th and 12th, in the parking lot of the USDA-ARS Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory in Sidney. The event provides area residents an opportunity to dispose of their old, obsolete electronic products in an environmentally friendly manner.
And for the second year in a row, the Richland County Solid Waste Department has joined the ‘E-rase your E-waste’ team by providing community members an alternate drop off place and time to recycle their outdated items. Under the arrangement, individuals and businesses can drop off their e-waste at the county shop site at 2140 W. Holly in Sidney from 11 am til 2 pm on any of the following Thursdays: August 13, 20 and 27 and again on September 3.
We’ll have volunteers there to help with the weighing and loading,” E-rase your E-waste committee co-chair Jackie Couture said. “Unfortunately, the discounts typically offered at at the September community collection event will NOT be available for these alternative collections.” That means the cost to those recycling their outdated electronic items at the county shop will remain 40 cents per pound.
Discounts have been offered to E-rase your E-waste participants the past four years thanks to local sponsorships, and organizers are again looking for donors to help offset some of the costs for participants at the 2008 event. “We hope to again offer a discount on the first 200 lbs. recycled by an individual or business until the matching money runs out,” Couture said, adding that anyone wishing to donate to the effort can mail or drop off a check - made out to “LEPC/E-waste” – at Richland County LEPC; c/o Richland County Disaster & Emergency Services; 121 2nd Ave NW;Sidney, MT 59270.
“Generous donations from area businesses and organizations the past several years have helped reduce the fees for most participants, but we know the fees and limited collection dates are a problem for some,” Couture said. “That’s why we added the new drop off site at the Solid Waste Department last year and why we also try to let people know that there are additional e-cycling programs out there, at least for computers, that may be less expensive. For example, companies like Dell, Gateway and Apple all have recycling options for their customers, although the requirements can vary.” Couture recommended that interested persons should visit the website of their computer’s manufacturer for more information.
In addition to partnering with the Richland County Solid Waste Department, the Sidney E-rase your E-waste team is once again teaming up with Williston, ND to hold a joint weekend collection. The Williston event will be held at the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Williston the same times as the Sidney event on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 11-12. Discounts may vary at the two sites.
The E-rase your E-waste effort in Williston is coordinated by the Upper Missouri Public Health District and in Sidney by members of the Richland County Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC), Richland Opportunities Inc., and volunteers with other community organizations including the RSVP and CERT programs.
While encouraging area residents to e-cycle, Couture also stressed that e-waste in Montana and North Dakota is not yet regulated and in many instances can legally be disposed of free of charge in local landfills, although some do charge a fee. However, because of the toxic substances contained in e-waste such as lead, mercury and heavy metals that could cause serious environmental and human health problems, Couture says many individuals and businesses opt for e-cycling where available, despite the added costs.
And that’s been particularly true in Richland County, she noted, where collections have continued to double nearly every year despite participants having to pay for the privilige. Last year the local “E-rase your E-waste” recycling event collected more than 46,000 pounds or 23 tons of electronic waste, according to Couture, with more than 40 tons collected since the event’s inception in 2005.
The interest in e-cycling reflects growing public concern for this escalating problem, according to Couture. And the great thing about e-cycling, Couture says, is that 98.5% of e-waste materials can be reused in some other fashion, meaning longer landfill life as well as a healthier environment!
2008 E-waste recycling event again exceeds previous totals!
 More than 90 local – and some not so local – residents, businesses, schools and government agencies recycled in excess of 46,040 pounds of electronic waste under the 2008 “E-rase your E-waste” program, according to event organizers.
“We want to thank everyone for the fantastic participation this year!” co-coordinators Cindy Eleson and Jackie Couture said. “We more than doubled the amount we collected last year – itself a record - and we exceeded the combined total for the past three years!” Couture noted, adding, “Altogether, we’ve recycled more than 40 tons of e-waste since the program’s inception in 2005!”
People came from as far away as Fort Peck and Baker, in addition to all corners of Richland County, Eleson said. While the number of participants was similar to last year’s turnout, she noted, the total amount collected increased 250%. And that doesn’t include the 15,000 plus pounds collected at the companion e-cycling event in Williston, Eleson added.
She and Couture are quick to thank the many local residents, businesses, organizations and schools who chose to “e-rase their e-waste” in 2008, thereby keeping a significant amounts of hazardous wastes contained in those items out of local landfills. Promotional support by local print and broadcast media, Mid-Rivers Cable, Lower Yellowstone REA, and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality and matching funding from Sidney Health Center, the City of Sidney, the Richland County Commissioners, Lower Yellowstone REA (all of Sidney) and Drill Iron Consulting and Bill’s Back 40 of Williston all helped once again to spur participation in the event, according to Butch Renders, another committee member.
 Organizers also noted a number of new features in this year’s “E-rase your E-waste” campaign that also contributed to the remarkable totals achieved. “We want to thank the Richland County Solid Waste Department for letting us collect and store e-waste at the county shop during the month of August,” Couture said. “Every year we’ve had people tell us they can’t make our weekend event and then ask if we can take items another day. This year we were able to accommodate them by adding collection hours on Thursdays in August at the County Shop thanks to the solid waste board.” That effort brought in an additional 1,600 pounds of e-waste, despite people having to pay the full price, she noted.
Local school districts were also major e-cyclers this year under a special reduced cost program provided especially for schools by Tattoine Electronics, Inc. of Cheyenne, WY, the e-cycler for the 2008 as well as past “E-rase your E-waste” events in Sidney and Williston. “The schools brought in slightly over 25,000 pounds, according to Couture, with the Sidney School system clearing its closets of more than 21,045 pounds of outdated equipment. Other participating schools included Lambert, Rau, Fairview and East Fairview.
 But it wasn’t just school districts participating in this year’s event, a dozen students from Caryn Fehilly’s Web Design Class at Sidney High School also pitched in to help document and load electronic waste at the event on Friday, Sept. 5. “We really appreciated their help and enthusiasm,” Renders said. “We also want to thank Caryn Fehilly for inviting Jackie and myself to speak to her class about the dangers of e-waste and the importance of recycling outdated electronics.”
“And again, a huge thank you to all our very dedicated volunteers this year who helped load all those tens of thousands of pounds of e-waste,” Renders said. “In particular, we want to thank Stan Lindblom with the RSVP program and Deb Waters and Jill Miller with ARS for their major efforts at the weekend event. And we look forward to seeing everyone again next year.
Dates Set for E-rase your E-waste in 2008!
The dates for Richland County’s fourth annual “E-rase your E-waste” event have been set for Friday and Saturday, Sept. 5th and 6th, in the parking lot of the USDA-ARS Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory in Sidney. The E-rase your E-waste effort is coordinated by the Sidney ARS lab, the Richland County Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC), Richland Opportunities Inc., and volunteers with other community organizations. The event provides area residents an opportunity to dispose of their old, obsolete electronic products in an environmentally friendly manner.
Over the past three years “E-rase your E-waste” has collected more than 36,000 pounds of electronic waste for recycling, according to Jackie Couture, a member of the organizing committee. “It’s grown every year,” she notes, despite being held only one weekend a year and despite the fees participants have to pay to recycle their old electronics. “Generous donations from area businesses and organizations have helped reduce the fees for some participants, but we know the fees and limited collection dates are a problem for some,” Couture said. “That’s why we try to let people know that there are additional e-cycling programs out there, at least for computers. Companies like Dell, Gateway and Apple all have recycling options for their customers, although the requirements can vary.”
Typically those larger computer manufacturers allow their customers to return their old computers for free, but participants in the programs frequently must pay shipping charges and abide by specific packaging instructions. Some manufacturers may even apply discounts to new computer purchases made by their customers returning old computers. “The requirements are different for each, but these programs do provide another alternative for people wanting to dispose of their e-waste in an environmentally friendly manner,” Couture said, adding that interested persons should visit the website of their computer’s manufacturer for more information.
But it’s not just individuals who can recycle their computers through the manufacturer. Couture noted that Apple Inc. has recently added a new program for schools that allows them to recycle their old, unwanted Mac computers, PCs, and qualifying peripherals from any manufacturer—for free. According to the Apple website, there’s no purchase required, and all accredited K–12 and higher education institutions with at least 25 pieces to be recycled are eligible to participate. However, to take advantage of this opportunity, schools need to register with Apple by June 30, Couture said. For more information, interested school officials should visit the following website: http://www.apple.com/education/shop/recycle/
Couture is quick to point out that e-waste in Montana and North Dakota is not yet regulated and in many instances can legally be disposed of in local landfills, although some do charge a fee. However, because of their interest in eliminating toxic substances from entering our landfills and potentially polluting our environment, Couture says many individuals and businesses opt for e-cycling where available.
The increased interest in e-cycling reflects growing public concern for this escalating problem, according to Couture. Every year millions of pounds of outdated consumer electronics end up in our landfills. These electronics put heavy metals and toxins such as lead, chromium, cadmium, mercury, beryllium, nickel, zinc, and brominated flame retardants into the environment. Preventing electronics such as computers, monitors, televisions, and cellular phones from being thrown away can prevent serious environmental and human health problems. And the great thing about e-cycling, Couture says, is that 98.5% of e-waste materials can be reused in some other fashion, meaning longer landfill life as well as a healthier environment!
Alternative collection days, site added as part of 2008 E-rase your E-waste event!
At the request of community members unable to attend the Sept. 5-6 community-wide “E-rase your E-waste” weekend recycling event, organizers have partnered with the Richland County Solid Waste Department to provide alternate collection times and dates in the month of August.
“We’re pleased to announce that the Richland County Solid Waste Department has joined the ‘E-rase your E-waste’ team to expand electronics recycling in the county,” Butch Renders, one of the organizers of the event, said. “The Solid Waste Department will be helping to collect e-waste at select times during the month of August at the Richland County Public Works building - or as most people know it, the county shop by the fairgrounds - to accommodate those residents unable to participate in our annual Sept. 5-6 weekend event.”
According to Renders, individuals and businesses unable to attend the weekend event can drop off their obsolete electronic items at the county shop site at 2140 W. Holly in Sidney on any Thursday in August from 11 am to 2 pm. Those dates are Aug. Aug. 7, 14, 21, and 28, he noted. “We’ll have volunteers there to help with the weighing and loading and we’ll be able to issue recycling certificates for participants under an agreement with our e-cycler for the event,” Renders said. “Unfortunately, any discounts being offered at the September community collection event will NOT be available for these alternative collections in August.” That means the cost to those recycling their outdated electronic items at the county shop will remain 40 cents per pound.
Discounts have been offered to E-rase your E-waste participants the last two years thanks to local sponsorships, and organizers are again looking for donors to help offset some of the costs for participants at the 2008 event, according to Jackie Couture, another event organizer. “We hope to again to offer a discount on the first 200 lbs. recycled by an individual or business until the matching money runs out,” Couture said. Letters have been mailed out to select businesses and individuals seeking donations, she noted, adding that anyone else wishing to donate can send a check - made out to RCHD/CERT – to Richland County Health Dept. /CERT at 221 5th Street SW, Sidney, MT. Like Renders, Couture stressed that the discounts made possible through any matching donations will only be available to those participating in the Sept. 5-6 event, not those using the alternative drop site at the county shop.
In addition to partnering with the Richland County Solid Waste Department, the Sidney E-rase your E-waste team is once again teaming up with Williston to hold a joint event. This year both city sites will be open both days Friday, Sept. 5 from 8 am to 6 pm and Saturday, Sept. 6 from 8 am to 1 pm. The Sidney collection will be held in the parking lot of the USDA-ARS Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory in Sidney, While the Williston event will be held at the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Williston.
The E-rase your E-waste effort is coordinated by the Sidney ARS lab, the Richland County Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC), Richland Opportunities Inc., and volunteers with other community organizations including the RSVP and CERT programs. The event provides area residents an opportunity to dispose of their old, obsolete electronic products in an environmentally friendly manner.
Over the past three years “E-rase your E-waste” has collected more than 36,000 pounds of electronic waste for recycling, according to Jackie Couture, a member of the organizing committee. “It’s grown every year,” she notes, despite being held only one weekend a year and despite the fees participants have to pay to recycle their old electronics.
Couture is quick to point out that e-waste in Montana and North Dakota is not yet regulated and in many instances can legally be disposed of in local landfills, although some do charge a fee. However, because of their interest in eliminating toxic substances from entering our landfills and potentially polluting our environment, Couture says many individuals and businesses opt for e-cycling where available.
The increased interest in e-cycling reflects growing public concern for this escalating problem, according to Couture. Every year millions of pounds of outdated consumer electronics end up in our landfills. These electronics put heavy metals and toxins such as lead, chromium, cadmium, mercury, beryllium, nickel, zinc, and brominated flame retardants into the environment. Preventing electronics such as computers, monitors, televisions, and cellular phones from being thrown away can prevent serious environmental and human health problems. And the great thing about e-cycling, Couture says, is that 98.5% of e-waste materials can be reused in some other fashion, meaning longer landfill life as well as a healthier environment!
9+ tons collected at 2007 E-rase your E-waste event!
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Participants line up to recycle their e-waste with more than 9 tons collected at the 2007 "E-rase your E-waste" event in Sidney, MT.
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The 2007 E-rase your E-waste committee would like to thank everyone who participated in this year’s “E-rase your E-waste” e-cycling effort and provide some additional information on the event that we thought might be of interest to the community.
First and foremost, the organizing committee wants to extend our appreciation to Sidney Health Center, City of Sidney, Lower Yellowstone REA, Drill Iron Consulting, and Sidney Motor Rewind for their generous donations to help spur participation in the event by cutting costs for participants. Thanks also to our local media, Mid-Rivers Telephone and Lower Yellowstone REA for providing promotional support. It definitely worked! Altogether we collected 18,460 pounds of e-waste at our 2007 event, nearly 9,000 MORE pounds than at our event in 2006. In fact, our 2007 event collected more than BOTH our 2005 and 2006 events combined thanks to the many local residents and businesses who – recognizing the importance of keeping these items out of our local landfills – chose to “e-rase their e-waste!”
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Volunteer Butch Renders and others help process items for e-cycling at the 2007 event. |
And what did they bring this year? 204 computer monitors, 43 laptops, 91 printers, 152 CPUs, 12 VCRs, 2 electric typewriters, 4 microwaves, 29 televisions, 5 scanners, 12 copiers and 1 cash register….just to list the major items. That (conservatively) adds up to more than 1,200 pounds of lead kept out of our local landfill (or any landfill), along with 0.44 lbs of mercury. Equally significant is the amount of non-hazardous materials kept out of any landfill since as much as 98% of recycled electronic waste is reused. That means a longer landfill life, in addition to a healthier environment; definitely a win-win situation for all of us!
And that brings us to another group that we’d like to recognize: our dedicated volunteers who helped unload, weigh and record the entire 18,460 pounds! Among them were a couple of volunteers from Williston, ND who were getting a few tips for how to organize their own E-rase your E-waste event the next day. This year’s unique cross-border collaboration was the first ever public collection event for that community. Thanks to all our volunteers for making both events run so smoothly!
Again, thanks to all our donors, participants and volunteers for making this latest “E-rase your E-waste” event so successful! We look forward to working with you again next year!
"E-rase your E-waste" collects 9,336 pounds of obsolete equipment in 2006!
For the second year in a row, more than 4 tons of electronic waste was collected during the “E-rase your E-waste” event held in Sidney this past Friday and Saturday. Altogether 9,336 pounds of e-waste – representing dozens of monitors, CPUs, printers and more – were brought in for recycling at the 2006 event, 1,000 more pounds than the previous year, organizers said.
“The response from the community was great,” CERT Coordinator & RSVP Director Kim Younquist, a member of the organizing committee, said. “We weren’t really expecting to do as well as last year, this second time around, but we actually did better.”
Both Younquist and fellow organizer Jackie Couture, head of the Richland County Local Emergency Planning Committee, stressed that much of that success can be attributed to Sidney Health Center, who, in addition to donating $800.00 in matching funds to lower costs for other community participants, also provided financial support for their own employees to participate this year. “They did a great job of encouraging everyone to participate and demonstrating their commitment to maintaining a healthy community,” Younquist said. “We had all the money used up by 9:30 Saturday morning and we still had people coming.”
“We also want to thank the other businesses and individuals who participated this year,” Couture added. “Several of them were repeat customers, such as Pella Lutheran Church and Lower Yellowstone REA, but we also had several new participants such as Montana-Dakota Utilities, Montana State University, Johnson Hardware and the Richland County Health Department. We even had some out-of-town groups participate including the Glendive Office of Public Assistance, McCody Concrete from Williston, North Dakota and the McKenzie County North Dakota Sheriff’s Department and about 5 to 10 more individuals that came from North Dakota.”
In addition to the increased pounds collected this year, organizers also saw a significant increase in the number of individuals participating in 2006. And all those smaller contributions added up, with individuals accounting for more than 1.5 tons (3,324 pounds) of the total e-waste collected this past weekend. And that’s without adding in items collected by the hospital from their employees, organizers noted.
Couture and Younquist said the vast majority of those participating in the event were very appreciative of the opportunity to recycle their obsolete electronic equipment. “Several people told us how glad they were that we were doing this and that they would like to see it become an annual event,” Couture said, adding that organizers are considering doing just that. She also noted that the representative from Glendive’s Office of Public Assistance reported that individuals in that city hope to get a similar e-cycling event started there.
As people continue to learn more about the hazards associated with dumping outdated electronic products, their interest in e-cycling increases, organizers noted. “Obviously people in this area see this as a very good and worthwhile event, since they continue to support it even though they have to pay to participate,” Younquist said.
Younquist and Couture, who is also the Health and Safety Officer with the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in Sidney, thanked the many volunteers who helped out with the effort this past weekend, as well as thanking local and area print and broadcast media for their help in publicizing the event. “Without them we would not have been nearly as successful,” Couture said. “We also want to thank Montana DEQ (Department of Environmental Quality) who provided additional promotional funding.”
Organizers for this year’s E-rase your E-waste event included Richland County LEPC, Richland Opportunities, Inc., the USDA-ARS Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory, the Richland County Retired Seniors Volunteer Program, the Local Community Emergency Response Team, with support from Montana DEQ.
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