New York City’s Lower East Side Ecology Center (LESEC), a grass-roots environmental not-for-profit which is best known for its “paydirt”—rich compost made from New York City residents’ kitchen scraps—as well as its diversity of hands-on environmental education programs, is asking for working and non-working cell phones, computers and other electronics at its Earth Day Take-back Days on Saturday, April 26, or Sunday, June 1, from 9:00 am through 3pm. at Union Square in Manhattan.
The primary goal of the phone and e-waste drive is to collect electronics that New York City residents no longer use and would ordinarily throw out. What residents don’t realize is that electronics contain lots of heavy metals and other persistent and bio-accumulative toxins. If they are disposed of in landfills and incinerators, they spread those pollutants and chemicals into the air and groundwater.
The secondary goal of this program is to reduce the amount of residential trash exported out of the City daily. New Yorkers generate more than 11,000 tons of household trash every day. With no landfill of its own, the City pays by the pound to have the trash containerized and transported to landfills and incinerators outside the City. LESEC is one of eight community groups contracted by the INFORM and funded by the Department of Sanitation to provide waste prevention outreach and education to New York City residents.
Working computers will be refurbished at Per Scholas, a Bronx based not-for-profit, and sold at low cost to educational institutions and low-income families. Non-working or very old computers and televisions will be safely disassembled according to State and Federal guidelines and recycled to the fullest extent.
Working and non-working cell phones will be collected and shipped to another not-for-profit, Charitable Recycling, which pays one dollar for every phone donated. Proceeds from the donated cell phones will be given to the Lower East Side Ecology Center to help fund local, hands-on environmental education programs offered for free to public schoolchildren.
Accepted items include:
- Computers (laptops and desktops), monitors, printers, keyboards, mice and cables
- TVs (no wooden consoles please, only plastic cases) and VCRs
- Fax Machines
Small household appliances, such as microwaves and toasters; stereo equipment and radios; and cameras are not accepted.