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3rd Annual E-waste Recycling Event a Success!

December 2010

bucket loader with recycled computers

This year’s annual Household E-waste Round-up, which took place on October 29th, collected 34,851 lbs of electronics, 9,000 lbs more than last year.

The event took place in Park Lot, where student and staff volunteers greeted a steady flow of traffic from the UR Community. From 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., workers enthusiastically emptied the vehicles of unwanted computers, monitors, keyboards and various other electronics.

Sunnking Inc., an electronics recycling company based in Brockport, was on hand all day to wrap the electronics and take the loaded trucks back to their facility where computer hard drives were destroyed to protect personal information, and any salvageable components were pulled out to be reused.  All other components were recycled, and hazardous materials like lead and mercury were extracted and disposed of safely.

volunteer studentsOur turnout was so popular the Sunnking truck was filled five separate times. Over 54 pallets were used to transport the electronics.

Delta Upsilon, one of our on-campus fraternities, also helped with the event by showing up with 8 student volunteers – the largest contingent from any one group throughout the day.

Rayna Oliker, the University’s Interim Recycling Coordinator, would like to thank all the student and staff volunteers that helped us to make this event so successful, as well as Sunnking Inc. for their partnership with the University. If it weren’t for all of you, we couldn’t have moved a single monitor. Thank you for all your hard work!

Most importantly, we want to thank the UR Community for supporting this initiative. In three years, we diverted almost 85,000 pounds of unwanted equipment from your landfills.

“Why didn’t I know about this event before now?” some of you may be asking. Have no fear! If you missed this year’s event, just hang on to those old electronic and mark your calendar for the last Friday in October (10/28/11), courtesy of your University Recycling Coordinator and all of University Facilities and Services.