Electronic recycling back for ninth year

Crook County Natural Resource District (CCNRD) is once again bringing a trailer to town to collect the electronics that are clogging up your storage space.

The district will this year be hosting the event in the parking lot of its office in Sundance and will have signs posted to designate entry and exit points in order to keep the traffic flowing properly.

The trailer will be taking waste on September 7 from 10 a.m. until noon.

If you are planning to take advantage of this service, be aware that it is no longer possible for CCNRD to accept the old-style tube CRT televisions.

Items that can be accepted range from computers to power strips, alarm clocks to small kitchen or bathroom appliances, speakers to car stereos.

However, there is also a short list of items that cannot be placed in the trailer, including the aforementioned CRT televisions and also major appliances (such as stoves, dishwashers or dryers), anything with freon (such as air conditioners and fridges), light bulbs, fluorescent tubes, paint, antifreeze, oil and vacuums.

CCNRD board member Lily Altaffer will be transporting batteries to a second recycling facility. She will be able to accept household, automotive, equipment, power tool and small lawn batteries.

Please keep batteries separated from your other items to facilitate transport to the second facility.

CCNRD’s annual collection has been taking place since 2016 and has so far seen just under 70,000 pounds of electronic waste recycled instead of going into a landfill. Last year, for example, CCMRD collected more than 7500 pounds of electronic waste.

Properly e-cycling your electronics protects your own digital safety as well as groundwater and the environment. CCNRD utilizes ProTech Computing of Gillette to collect and transport items to MeTech Recycling in Denver, an R2-certified facility.

At that point, the electronics are dismantled and repurposed and the hazardous waste is disposed of safely. MeTech maintains E-2 certifications and guarantees that the hard drive information on your digital devices is safely destroyed.

In terms of protecting the environment, electronic waste is known to account for an estimated 70% of toxic waste in U.S. landfills. These materials, such as lead, mercury and cadmium, can seep into soil and groundwater.

Recycling, on the other hand, saves space in landfills and prevents the environmental pollution these items can cause.

CCNRD’s e-cycling event has been offered annually as part of the district’s goal to protect the natural resources of this area.