Electronics recycling drive tally tops 70,000 pounds

There was a steady stream of cars dropping off household refuse at the annual Electronics Recycling Day held during Earth Week at SUNY Fredonia. Students from the Men's Soccer Team unloaded the recyclables from the cars.

More than 70,000 pounds of electronics equipment – enough to fill 69 skids -- was collected at SUNY Fredonia’s annual community household recycling drive April 21.

“The event went very well,” reported Kevin Cloos, director of Facilities Services at SUNY Fredonia. “People were thankful this (recycling opportunity) was offered to the community.”

Members of the men’s soccer team gave yeoman’s service by pitching in to unload a steady stream of nearly 600 vehicles on Ring Road, near the Services Complex, during the four-hour collection. “We had a really good turnout in one hour, when we unloaded 181 vehicles. That’s one vehicle every 20 seconds,” Cloos noted. “For two hours there was a constant line of vehicles.”

Among the more frequently discarded items were: monitors (332), personal computers (328) and televisions (301). Servers totaling 465 pounds were also collected, as were 105 pounds of battery backup units and 14 laptops. The battery total reached 676 pounds, including 452 pounds of lead acid batteries, 208 pounds of alkaline batteries, 12 pounds of NiCad batteries and two pounds each of NiMh and lithium ion batteries.

Miscellaneous electronics accounted for 24,873 pounds of the 71,741-pound total.

Cloos attributed the drop from last year’s almost 82,000 pounds collected to a decrease in large items, such as televisions and computer monitors, and an increase in smaller electronics items.

SUNY Fredonia partnered with Rochester-based Regional Computer Recycling & Recovery, the largest independent information technology asset disposition company in New York, for the campaign, now in its fifth year.