Last updated April 12, 2019
Residents of New York in the United States are lining up to take advantage of the new laws, which make it free to hand over old cell phones and other electrical goods for recycling. The free electronic recycling program went into effect all over the state of New York from the beginning of this month and consumers are more than happy to take advantage of it, especially given that they were formerly charged between five to ten US dollars per item they wanted to dispose of in a more environmentally friendly manner.
“We tried to do this before, but because we had a lot of monitors, I wound up bringing a lot of them home,” says consumer Irene Doerrer of Greece. “It would have cost a hundred and forty (dollars).” Doerrer is not alone in her concerns, with John Jeffery of Penfield being even blunter in his observation. “They said “ten dollars”, and I said “I’m giving you stuff and I have to pay for it?”… I put it by the curb.”
Even before the service became free, however, many residents did recycle, with just one event held in Greece last September collecting more than thirty thousand pounds worth of electronic material, including used cell phones. With the service now free of charge, those figures seem certain to skyrocket. “This year, everything has flipped upside down,” notes Penfield Highway Superintendant Jim Fletcher. “All of a sudden, manufacturers are paying for it. In Penfield, our goal is to get whatever we can out of the waste stream.”