The 11th annual E-Cycle Day was held on Friday, November 2 in the Zone 3 South parking lot. Cars started lining up in the early morning hours to drop off old household electronics to be recycled. A total of 30,156 pounds of electronics were collected—3,000 more pounds than at last year! The electronics are recycled each year through Sunnking, which provides electronics recycling services to the University.
E-Cycle Day is held for University of Rochester staff, faculty, and students to promote safe recycling of electronic equipment. Sunnking extends the life of donated electronics, first by refurbishing and reselling or dismantling parts, then by recycling what cannot be resold. Events like this are especially important because disposing of electronics in a landfill is illegal in New York State.
Many University employees come to E-Cycle Day year after year. Karen Cremeans went out of her way to drop off electronics since she was not working on that day. Cremeans looks out for the event every year and said, “I think this is really awesome that the University offers this.” Patti Campoli from the Medical Center also attends E-Cycle Day every year, and echoed Creameans’ sentiments saying, “It’s great that the University offers this” because she sees so many old electronics on the side of the road that could be recycled.
From 6:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m., volunteers collected various electronics including televisions, computers, cell phones, printers, stereos, microwaves, and more. This year, 15,446 pounds of the electronics collected were either CRT or LCD TVs—this means nearly half of the electronics collected were TVs. Volunteers loaded the materials onto pallets and wrapped them in plastic wrap. They then loaded the electronics into Sunnking’s truck to be brought to their recycling facility. Sunnking strives to be a zero waste operation and recycles all the plastic wrap and cardboard used at their events, and was the first recycling company to obtain Responsible Recycling (R2) certification in New York State.
Sustainability Coordinator Amy Kadrie, who organizes E-Cycle Day each year, would like to thank the brothers of Delta Upsilon for volunteering at the event for the ninth year in a row. She would also like to thank Ulysses Holmes and Abner Vargas of Medical Center Facilities Operations, as well as Cindy Jessop and the crew from Sunnking. Pictures from the event can be found on the UR Sustainable Facebook page.
Recycling electronics safely prevents the leakage of toxic chemicals from electronics into the ground and water supply. It also promotes the option of safely recycling electronics. Residents of Monroe County may access Ecopark, a recycling collection facility open year long. Employees can also take advantage of University IT’s Equipment Recovery Program to securely recycle personal or University-owned consumer electronics free of charge year round.
Written by Isabel Lieberman, Class of 2021.