It's against state law to throw old electronics in the normal trash so there used to be a special e-trash that would take that trash but now that has been canceled do to low prices for recycling. Currently there is no easy way to get rid of your old electronics. Maybe Best Buy or some other place "may" take it? People are just going to toss this stuff where ever with no regards to the mess it will make.


We need solutions to e-cycling problems

http://www.ydr.com/story/opinion/editorials/2015/12/25/we-need-solutions-e-cycling-problems/77839952/

The company that was taking York County’s old electronics suddenly said it could no longer take the material.Here’s hoping you had a great Christmas!

Maybe you got a new smart HDTV with the curved screen. Maybe a new gaming system – and new laptops and tablets for the whole fam.Have fun!But now what are you going to do with all your obsolete tech-ware that’s, like, a whole six months old?Don’t toss it in the trash. That would be illegal in Pennsylvania, according to Act 108.OK, so that calls for a trip over to the York County Solid Waste Authority’s e-cycling drop-off site, right? Wrong.

Just in time for the post-Christmas old tech purge, the authority has suspended its drop-off program.But don’t call the authority a Scrooge or a Grinch. The suspension isn’t YCSWA’s fault.The issue is that ECOvanta, the Philadelphia-based recycling company that was taking York County’s old electronics, suddenly said it could no longer take the material, said YCSWA spokeswoman Ellen O’Connor.It’s a problem of supply and demand.

There’s too much recycled material, and the price of the material is so low it doesn’t make economic sense to process it all.But that doesn’t change the law.You can’t put computer monitors, old laptops and desktops, keyboards, mice and a plethora of other “covered devices” out for the trash – and your waste hauler can’t pick it up if you do.So, what are you supposed to do?

Well, you might be able to get Best Buy to take it. Call and check first. Some other local companies also take in e-cycling.But barring that, stick it in the basement until YCSWA secures a new e-cycler, which Ms. O’Connor said the agency is trying to do.YCSWA is also urging residents to contact lawmakers and ask for changes in the law.Ms. O’Connor offered a few suggestions: 

• Change the law to allow waste facilities to dispose of “orphan” electronics – computers and monitors left by the side of the road or elsewhere. That might be a short-term solution to a problem we know is only going to worsen locally in the coming weeks, but it’s not a long-term plan.
• Change the law to simply allow these devices to be disposed of by agencies such YCSWA. In York County, that material would be burned at the incinerator – essentially used as fuel to create electricity. Ms. O’Connor says the metals can be extracted from the ash – and the incinerator has “state-of-the-art” pollution controls. That’s a possibility, but it would be better to recycle the materials, as the Philly company does.
• Tweak the law so that the fee manufacturers must pay to cover e-cycling is more uniform and workable. That makes sense, but remember, those costs are built into prices for electronics, driving up expenses for consumers.

The bottom line is that there’s no free lunch – no easy, perfect solution that’s exempt from the laws of supply and demand.So, maybe you could come up with some creative uses for your obsolete tech.Use it to make sculptures?Turn it into avant garde furniture?This is bound to become a growing problem in our tech-crazy world.We need our lawmakers to come up with some innovative solutions.