On Friday, October 18, University Facilities and Services held its 12th annual E-Cycle Day in the Zone 3 South parking lot for University staff, faculty, and students to safely recycle electronic equipment. From 6:30am to 1:00pm, cars lined up to drop off old, broken, or unwanted electronics to be recycled.
Bill and Anita Parkers brought their electronics early, complementing the event. “It’s a great event. We appreciate it and it helps the environment as well.” Tom Jaworski of University IT agrees with the Parkers and adds, “Every year I try to bring more and more stuff because it helps keep our environment clean.”
“It’s hard to recycle TVs and computers, and I know we shouldn’t throw them away so we’ve been stockpiling everything. [This event] makes it easy to bring everything to one place,” states Rosalyn Smith of Pharmacology and Physiology.
Volunteers help make the event convenient for participants by unloading electronics from vehicles and sorting them onto pallets which were then wrapped in plastic wrap and loaded into Sunnking’s truck to return to their recycling facility. There was an assortment of electronics filling 35 pallets including: televisions, computers, cell phones, printers, keyboards, stereos, old gaming devices, microwaves, and everything in between.
A total of 22,882 pounds of electronics was collected this year! Despite electronics becoming smaller and lighter, this year’s collection was extremely successful. Over the years, a total of 299,200 pounds of electronics have been collected through E-Cycle Day.
Sunnking is a local EPA R2 certified electronics recycling, data destruction, and asset management company, specializing in end-of-life electronics and equipment. After taking appropriate security measures to destroy all personal information, Sunnking makes its best effort to resell or reuse electronics. All other electronics are recycled and used to make new products, ensuring a sustainable alternative to directly disposing of unwanted electronics into landfills.
A special thanks to the brothers of Delta Upsilon for volunteering at the event for the tenth year in a row, as well as Ulysses Holmes and Michael Dodge of Medical Center Facilities Operations. and Cindy Jessop, Joelle Esler and the crew from Sunnking. Pictures from the event can be found on the UR Sustainable Facebook page here.
Recycling electronics prevents energy and material waste, and avoids the leakage of toxic chemicals from the cast-off electronics into the ground, and eventually into the water supply. The collection also raises awareness that the option to recycle electronics is available and effective.
Residents of Monroe County who missed E-Cycle Day or have more devices to dispose of, may utilize Ecopark, a recycling collection facility open year long. Employees can also take advantage of University IT’s Equipment Recovery Program to securely recycle University-owned consumer electronics or personal free of charge year round. Or, start collecting electronics for E-Cycle Day 2020!
Written by Emily Su, Class of 2022.
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