-News 14
WILMINGTON – Workers emptied trunks car by car Saturday, all full of electronics ready to be recycled for the New Hanover County’s E-Waste Collection Drive.
It was an opportunity to get rid of hazardous and other household wastes while keeping the environment in mind.
“I brought some old remotes and some dead batteries and a phone system that no longer worked,” said Irene Webster of Leland.
There wasn’t any other place to dispose of the waste unless it went in the garbage, so people waited, and George Scheinber came with a truck load.
“I’ve waited and loaded up a pick-up truck worth of monitors and old computers and printers to bring up here today,” said Scheinber, of Wilmington.
An estimated 30,000 pounds of electronics will be recycled at the event. If that material were thrown away, it would mean burying the equivalent of a tractor trailer in the ground – and burying electronics has environmental repercussions.
“We do have an excellent water treatment system, waste treatment system over there, so the lead and mercury would be the most damaging,” said New Hanover Solid Waste Planner Lynn Bestul.
The next electronics collection day is not set for New Hanover County, but Bestul recommends holding onto electronics until they can be disposed of properly.