On Saturday, January 28, 2012, the Lower East Side Ecology Center ran an E-waste recycling event outside on Brook Avenue, by East 140th St and Brook Park, in the South Bronx, in cooperation with the Friends of Brook Park organization. The event was also hosted by Tekserve Corporation, a retailer and repair center for Apple computer products. Volunteers from the Friends of Brook Park helped in the logistics for the event and encouraged people to donate their used electronic and computer equipment (E-waste) for recycling. Some residents went by and stopped, trying to find out if the group was giving away things, and then were told that no, it was to collect old electronics. The event educated people that electronics have toxic materials in them and have to be disposed of properly. Christina Romero of the Center led a team of workers who are graduates of the Green City Force program. The workers helped to load E-waste onto pallets, since much of the stuff was heavy, like old CRT computer monitors and televisions with tubes. Christina explained that the old televisions have 4 to 10 pounds of lead in the glass in their screens, in order to shield viewers from the X-rays used in the cathode tubes. Flat screen TVs and monitors do not have lead in them, but do contain mercury, another toxic chemical. Materials in computers and electronics can also be valuable, like the gold that can be recovered from their electronic circuit boards. For many years, the Lower East Side Ecology Center has had events to collect old electronics and to have them collected by a licensed electronics recycler. These events are citywide and have been held in other parts of the Bronx and Harlem. Recycling of E-waste has always been an important concern because improperly disposed waste can cause toxic pollution. Another problem is that E-waste is exported to poor countries, where people process it without safety equipment and can easily become sick from it. Now the Center is opening up its own warehouse to store, refurbish, and reuse electronics and computers. They are holding a celebration and open house for their new warehouse at 469 President St. (by Nevins St.) in Gowanus, Brooklyn on Saturday February 4th, from 12:00 pm to 4 p.m. This is a chance to drop off your E-waste, and tour the facility. Light refreshments will be provided and all are welcome. The warehouse is located by the N, R, and D subway lines, near the Union St. station. There are good reasons to refurbish and reuse computers. Many computers can be reused by people to connect to the Internet after being cleaned of old information and having an operating system reinstalled. The new warehouse is 13,000 square feet, and has smaller air-conditioned areas for office activity and training. There is a loading dock and the capability to stack four pallets of electronics equipment on top of each other, and the warehouse will be open to accept electronics equipment from Tuesday through Saturday. For more information on future activities and events, see the Center’s Web site at http://www.lesecologycenter.org or call (212) 477-4022.
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