Find a new place to trash TVs and other electronics

That old laptop replaced by a gift this holiday season may be obsolete, but once the calendar flips to 2012, it sure isn’t garbage.

A state law effective Sunday adds 13 electronic devices to the list of items banned from landfills.

And while municipalities, counties and solid waste agencies are working to educate the public about items no longer accepted as garbage, don’t expect too many more electronics recycling events or drop-off locations to spring up in the area, experts say.

The metropolitan area already has a strong infrastructure of electronics recycling programs, said Mary Allen, recycling and education director for the Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County.

“In the northern part of Illinois, I don’t think it’s going to be a big deal because Cook, Lake, DuPage, Will (counties), we’ve all been doing this for a while,” she said. “So many of our communities and counties have been doing electronics recycling and doing the right thing for so long that it’s just going to put pressure on communities that don’t have this infrastructure.”

With many recycling sites already set up, adjusting to the increase in items required to be recycled comes down to public knowledge of what’s now banned from landfills and where it can be taken.

“The biggest challenge (the law) faces is simply getting everyone aware of it,” said Mike Mitchell, executive director of the Illinois Recycling Association.

Seventeen common electronic devices, including TVs, computers, monitors, printers, fax machines, DVD players, portable digital music players, video game consoles and electronic keyboards will be banned from landfills beginning Jan. 1 under an update to the Illinois Electronic Products Recycling and Reuse Act.

The list was expanded because research commissioned by the state legislature determined electronics produce harmful environmental effects when allowed in landfills, said state Sen. John Millner of Carol Stream.

“The study validated what people thought was the right thing to do,” Millner said. “Once this becomes in effect and people are educated and they know they can give (their electronics) to a recycler, I think most people will do that.”

Experts suggest looking to solid waste agencies, municipalities and counties when in need of a place to unload unwanted electronics.

The Solid Waste Agency of Lake County operates nine electronics drop-off sites year-round in towns including Wauconda, Round Lake and Deer Park, said Merleanne Rampale, public information and education director.

“If you live in Lake County, you’re lucky because you should be able to find a drop-off location within a short distance of your home,” she said.

DuPage County’s electronics recycling program, established in 2008, includes nine sites in towns such as Addison, Lisle and Wheaton. From January to early December 2011, the program recycled 346,000 pounds of electronics.

“We’re constantly evaluating the sites we have, the amount of collection that’s going on at each site,” said Jeff Redick, DuPage’s environmental committee chairman.

Lombard doesn’t host a site for DuPage’s recycling program, but for the past few years has held a one-day “recycling extravaganza” in the fall. Trustee Laura Fitzpatrick, who leads the village board’s environmental concerns committee, said she’s working to add several more electronics recycling events in 2012 so they take place about once a month spring through fall.

“The state did a mandate and left it to us to deal with it,” Fitzpatrick said. “Nobody was really doing anything about it, so we decided to help.”

In suburbs served by the Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County, drop-off sites for obsolete electronics are complemented by one-day recycling events and an at-home pickup service for $30, said Allen, the agency’s recycling and education director. These efforts help put materials to new uses, she said.

“It reuses resources rather than wasting them, and there’s also potentially harmful materials in the components that will be disposed of or safely recycled,” Allen said.

Kane County’s recycling program accepts items in St. Charles the second Saturday of each month, Batavia each Monday through Friday, two locations in Aurora on certain dates and the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Elgin.

The Environmental Defenders of McHenry County hosts a monthly electronics recycling event in Woodstock.

The biggest change for suburban residents will be remembering an old keyboard or mp3 player isn’t garbage.

“These are still usable and reusable recyclable resources and should not be treated as garbage just because you got the latest model with an extra bell or extra whistle,” said the Illinois Recycling Association’s Mitchell.

Waste haulers will help enforce the law by leaving electronics at the curb, removing them at transfer stations and rejecting them from landfills, said Bill Plunkett, spokesman for Waste Management.

“When we can, we’ll be taking measures to separate those materials from the waste stream,” he said.

But if consumers hide small electronics in a bin full of food waste and trash, the hauler can’t be blamed if a few banned items end up in landfills, Millner said. Still, he said, education about free drop-off sites will lead most residents to follow the law.

“Once people know they have a place to take it that’s free, that makes a big difference,” Millner said.

The increase in electronics banned from landfills figures to bring more business to companies such as Bill Franklin’s Lake Bluff-based MidWest Computer Recycling. He said he expects more calls from companies that rent Dumpsters or clean out vacant offices because those businesses won’t be able to simply toss any computers, printers or fax machines they find.

“There may be some bumps on the road; there may be some stages on the learning curve,” Mitchell said. “The ultimate result is to keep valuable material on one hand, or toxic material on the other, out of landfills.”