An electronics recycling event in Cañon City last month saw consumers deliver more than four tons of old television sets to the recycling effort. The Upper Arkansas Regional Recycling Program and the Fremont County Commissioners sponsored the September 17th electronics recycling as 14,405 pounds of old computers, monitors, printers, and TV sets were brought in for recycling. Recycling Program coordinator Beth Lenz said she didn’t have a precise number of television sets delivered but the 9,330 pounds of televisions probably meant that consumers brought in more than 450 TV sets.
The popularity of the electronics recycling event was due in large part to the fact that consumers were able to pay half price to recycle old computer equipment and TV sets. The discounted recycling price was because of $7,500 the Fremont County Board of Commissioners budgeted in 2016 from the county’s Waste Disposal Fund. $5,000 of that amount was spent to subsidize the September 17th recycling event in Cañon City while the other $2,500 subsidized a similar event in Florence last April. The funds originate from surcharges the county gets from waste collected through local transfer stations and the landfill.
Lenz said in addition to electronic items delivered on September 17th some of the subsidy covered the cost of electronic items which were collected due to illegal dumping since the April event. She said trucks filled up so quickly on September 17th that volunteers spent another day the following week picking up electronics items from people who were unable to drop off their items that day.
Fremont County Commission Chairman Ed Norden said the Board of Commissioners hopes to budget another $7,500 for electronics recycling in 2017. He said one of the goals was to reduce the amount of illegal electronics dumping on public and private property and that the half price electronics recycling certainly proved to be even more popular than anticipated.
Lenz says besides electronics recycling next year in Cañon City and Florence they will look to offer a similar event in western Fremont County.