Two-day electronics recycling event scheduled for Pulaski County
by April 16, 2019 3:12 pm 471 views
The Regional Recycling District in Pulaski County will hold a free electronics recycling collection beginning Tuesday, April 23, at the Verizon Arena parking lot on E. Washington Avenue in North Little Rock. From 7 a.m. until 2 p.m., Pulaski County residents and businesses can drop off electronic items from computers and printers to televisions, copiers, cell phones and old VCRs.
The Recycling District will unload the items and recycle them for free. The event continues on Wednesday, April 24, from 7 a.m. until 2 p.m.
The event, called “Electronics Unplugged,” is for Pulaski County residents and businesses only. The event is free for individual households, businesses, non-profits, churches, governments, and schools living and doing business in Pulaski County.
For more information on the special two-day collection, go to RecyclingUnplugged.com.
Obsolete electronic equipment discarded by consumers represents 2% of the trash dumped every year in America’s landfills, according to federal recycling statistics. However, it also represents 70% of the toxic waste thrown out by individuals and businesses. Recycling of electronic equipment can help manage this risk to public health.
“We call it e-waste,” said Craig Douglass, executive director of the Regional Recycling & Waste Reduction District. “But it is actually not waste at all, because electronic equipment and component parts can be recycled and re-marketed for the manufacture of new products. Older computers and tablets can also be refurbished for resale at a significantly reduced cost.”
“According to the EPA, e-waste is the fastest growing municipal waste stream in the country,” Douglass said. “Our Unplugged event is designed to take back this equipment and recycle it to get it out of the waste stream and out of landfills.”
The Regional Recycling District partners with eSCO, a full-service electronics recycling recovery firm. The local company, with locations in Rogers and Little Rock, ensures secure data destruction on all electronic components, such as computer and mobile-device hard drives.