The Environmental Protection Agency is teaming up with an electronics retailer in a statewide effort to collect and recycle thousands of consumer electronic goods ruined by last month’s flooding. Best Buy has been an official partner in the E-P-A’s "Plug-In To e-Cycling" since 2006, and E-P-A on-scene coordinator
Eric Knold says they were contacted by a private company that works with Best Buy in solving their "e-goods" problems. He says the company had contacted the E-P-A in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina and set up some weekend collection events, but the company was asked to provide the service on a large-scale basis to help collect e-goods statewide.
Knold says the E-P-A wants to make sure things like TVs, computers and monitors don’t end up in landfills.
He says it’s been proven that electronic waste, if not disposed of properly, can cause a lot of problems in landfills, so they want to make sure that isn’t happening when large-scale events like the floods happen.
Knold says the E-P-A didn’t want to do a few weekend collection events but have something available to allow for the continuous collection of e-goods. He says as opposed to having a stationary collection center, they are picking up e-goods across the state and bringing them back to three central locations — Allison, Cedar Rapids and Iowa City — where semis will be able to pick up loads of e-goods.
Through the partnership, over 5,500 pieces of electronic equipment will be put on pallets for transporting to an Egan Minnesota company.