3 e-waste sites have collected nearly 400,000 pounds since September 2015
File photo by Tom Rivers: Paul Gray, a motor equipment operator for the Orleans County Highway Department, moves a pallet of computer units and other electronic waste at the County Highway Department at 225 West Academy St. This photo was taken on Sept. 18, 2015.
ALBION – Orleans County has collected nearly 400,000 pounds of “e-waste” since it started offering disposal sites for residents in September 2015.
Many of the older TVs with cathode-ray technology were ending up in ditches along rural roads. Garbage trucks didn’t pick them up beginning on Jan. 1, 2015 and local can redemption centers didn’t take them.
About 500 TVs were picked up by highway crews the first eight months of 2015 before the county opened waste collections sites at the County Highway Department today at 225 West Academy St., Albion; Murray Town Hall at 3840 Fancher Rd (Route31); and the Shelby Town Hall, 4062 Salt Works Rd.
“It’s been a very successful program with quality of life issues,” said County Legislator Ken DeRoller. “It makes the county look better.”
The county pays Sunnking Incorporated of Brockport to pick up and dispose of cathode ray tube televisions and other e-waste – monitors, computers, peripheral devices and other household electronics.
The Sunnking contract is based on quantity or weight of the items. It’s about a $28,000 to $30,000 per year cost.
The state last summer announced it would help municipalities with some of the cost of properly disposing of e-waste. James Bensley, the County Planning Department director, said the state is offering to cover half of the costs. Orleans has submitted an application for state funding, which would be $14,000 to $15,000.
The collected waste at the three sites totals 368,987 pounds since the county started the service, including 208,665 pounds in Albion, 115,510 at Shelby and 44,812 at Murray, according to data from the County Planning Department.
The county also runs household hazardous waste collection events, with residents disposing of 22,291 gallons of liquid waste and 41,205 pounds of solid waste during five events since 2009.
