zerowaste

E-waste can help schools and non-profits!

What if I told you that you could help save the planet and, at the same time, help non-profit organizations save their programs? What if I told you that you could really turn your trash into someone else's treasure? What if you knew that spending 15 minutes on a Saturday could help divert hundreds of tons of harmful material from going into our local landfills and help your child's school raise thousands of dollars?

Three years ago, ASL Recycling created a collection event program designed for schools and other non-profit organizations, with three goals:

1. To help make e-waste recycling more convenient for California residents;

2. To help further the cause of diverting electronics from local landfalls;

3. To support the great work of these organizations with fund raising.

Today, our program has hosted hundreds of events with local schools throughout the entire state, has diverted hundreds of tons of harmful material from local landfills, and has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for our local schools and non-profits.

This partnership program allows us to do all the heavy lifting, literally, while making it easy and turn-key for event participants and our non-profit partners. ASL Recycling helps find a functional site for the event; we provide marketing support and materials; we act as the authorized handler, collector, and recycler; and we provide all the labor, transportation, and recycling of the material. And when we are done with that we give our partners money to support their efforts — whether it is for buying new text books, buying new uniforms for their soccer team, running their after-school program, or helping to cover operating costs.

Every weekend, rain or shine, we are out in our local communities providing a free way for residents to recycle their unwanted or obsolete electronics and donate money to local non-profit organizations. You can find us as north as Sacramento and as far south as San Diego at www.ewastedropoff.com or www.aslrecycling.com.
 
 
Here is a list of the most common materials we accept.  You can watch a short video the features collection events here.
 
Televisions (CRTs/LCDs)
Computer monitors
Computers (CPUs)
Laptops
Keyboards
Printers
Mice
Hard drives
Fax machines
Microwave ovens
DVD players
Cable and cords
Telephones
Cell phones
Radios
Stereo components
Power supplies
Tape and ZIP drives
PC boards
Lab equipment
Optical drives
and more….

Networking for a greener environment

Since the inception of the GREENetwork eight months ago we’ve developed the most extensive infrastructure of e-waste drop-off locations in California. In Northern California alone we’ve established 100 GREENspots. Already, more than 90 percent of all households are within five miles or less of a free and ecologically sound e-waste recycling center. We‘ve worked diligently with our GREENspot hosts to divert over 10 million pounds of e-waste from local landfills.

And the GREENetwork is continuing to grow. This month we launched the Southern California network with 33 GREENspots that serve 72 percent of all households within 10 miles of their homes. We’ll reduce that distance to five miles as we grow, providing a consistent level of convenience across the state.

From the beginning, our vision was to provide a viable, free and convenient infrastructure for consumers and businesses to recycle their e-waste. We have worked to educate the public with consistent messaging about what e-waste is and what to do with it. And we have collaborated with retailers, manufacturers, approved collectors, cities and municipalities to divert harmful materials from our local landfills.

Several of our GREENspot e-waste drop-off locations have had tremendous success by being part of the GREENetwork. Here’s what two of them have to say:

"Our association with ASL Recycling and membership in the GREENetwork enables us to make a difference in our local community while keeping dangerous materials out of local landfills. We are now an even more convenient destination for the environmentally conscious consumer and business owner since we now offer both e-waste recycling as well as moving and storage services. And, we’ve been able to use the proceeds from the program to fund a scholarship program for students and to sponsor Special Olympics athletes."
--Bob Fraser, owner, Redwood Moving and Storage, California Moving and Storage Association

"I wanted to let you know that the GREENetwork program has helped us see an increase in the amount of calls for e-waste donation pickups and e-waste drop offs at our four thrift stores in San Mateo county. Almost weekly, I receive calls from people who said they found our contact information on the GREENetwork website. Had it not been for that site they would not have known we accept e-waste."
--Oscar Perez, stores operations manager at St. Vincent de Paul

We are working hard to collaborate with other industry organizations to make this program available to more people, make it more flexible and accessible, and provide more opportunities for people to do the right thing with their unwanted and obsolete electronics.

ASL Recycling and the GREENetwork hope to continue the effort across the nation to make e-waste recycling more convenient and free for businesses and consumers, and to help keep more harmful materials out of our nation’s landfills.

It's EASY. It's FREE. It's GREEN.

The original language in California's landmark electronic waste bill included the words "FREE" and "CONVENIENT". In 2003, when SB20 legislation was drafted, it was intended to create a program whereby a consumer's experience with e-waste recycling echoed these words.

And while California has been leading the way in creating more opportunity for e-waste recycling and helping to divert millions of pounds of hazardous material from our landfills, the average consumer remains in the dark about how to recycle their e-waste. Meanwhile their e-waste remains stockpiled in closets, garages, and storage units. We started to wonder how such a tech-savvy society could be so far behind in knowing what to do with their electronics when they were on to the next newest, smallest, coolest gadget.

A year ago if you told someone they could recycle their e-waste the first question they would probably ask is, "what is e-waste?!" While today e-waste is slowly becoming a household term when people think about their outdated PC, their CRT television hidden in the closet, the 5 cell phones in their desk drawer, we are still a long way from making it common knowledge. I like to say that the inconvenient truth about e-waste is that it has been truly inconvenient for people to recycle it, let alone conceptualize.

That is why we created the GREENetwork. The GREENetwork is a collaborative effort between California e-waste collectors, cities and municipalities, manufacturers, retailers, and ASL Recycling to provide:

- a CONVENIENT INFRASTRUCTURE of drop-off locations for consumers and businesses;
- a CONSISTENT MESSAGE about what e-waste is and how to recycle it; and
- a FREE way to recycle according to state regulations and industry best practices.

GREENsters (that's what we call people who recycle at their local GREENspot) can not only rest assured that all their personal information will be destroyed when they go their local GREENspot, they can recycle when they want to because GREENspots are permanent destinations with normal business hours.

So, how do we make a GREENster out of everyone? The GREENetwork hosts an online interactive listing of all its GREENspot drop-off locations (www.aslgreenspot.com), to which we drives consumers and businesses through a continuous mass-media campaign and public outreach. Every month we interact with local media outlets to inform them of the newest GREENspots in their areas. Additionally, we partner with the largest local news radio station in the market to reach over a million people a week with one clear message.

Today, only seven months after it was launched to the public, the GREENetwork has 100 GREENspot e-waste drop-off locations in Northern California serving 96 percent of the households in the nine-county Bay Area within 10 miles of their home, and 89 percent within 5 miles. Since its inception, the GREENetwork has been able to divert almost 10 million pounds of e-waste from local landfills and helped to educate thousands of people about what e-waste is and how to recycle it. This month we will launch the GREENetwork in Southern California and so soon we will be serving the entire state.

Here are some catchy definitions to add to your handheld gadget:

GREENetwork (green spot) n. The newest, coolest, easiest way for everyone and their mother to recycle their old, "so-last-year" e-waste. Syn. Easy

GREENster: (tree-huhg-er) n. Trend-setting, tech-savvy, hipster who understands the importance of balancing consumerism with environmentalism. Is fully aware of where their GREENspot is and how to use it. Syn. Recycler

GREENspot (zip-kohd ) n. The place you go to get rid of all that old electronic equipment that doesn't work and is taking up valuable space in your closet, garage, desk drawer. Syn. FREE

Get what you paid for!

Recently, the California Integrated Waste Management Board moved to address fund solvency in the SB20/SB50 legislation that is designed to provide a FREE and CONVENIENT solution for end-of-life recycling of televisions and computer monitors used in California.

The "pay as you go" program set up in 2003 was designed to collect an Advance Recovery Fee from consumers at the point of purchase in the amount of $6, $8, or $10 (depending on the size of the monitor) and use it to cover the costs of FREE and proper disposal at the end of the TV's life.

After a required review of the program, the CIWMB staff realized that it was collecting, on average, $8 per unit at the point of sale and then paying recyclers, on average, $22 per unit to recycle the unit. To maintain the solvency of the fund, starting January 1, 2009 consumers will pay $8, $16, and $25 with the hopes that the average per-unit income to the fund will be $15.

My strongest advice to consumers who are purchasing new televisions or computer monitors in 2009 (or even today at the old, lower rate) is get what you paid for. The $8, $16, or whopping $25 you might pay at the point of purchase is designed to make sure that you can dispose of that monitor for FREE when you are done with it. Not only are there are lot of places you can take your e-waste for free, there are several that will make sure that it gets disposed of properly and that (in the case of computers and hard disks) that all of your data is securely destroyed.

Our GREENetwork now has 100 free drop-off locations (GREENspots) in Northern California — 95% of all households don't have to drive more than 10 miles to find their local GREENspot. All the material you drop off at a GREENspot will be sent to ASL Recycling, where it will be completely dismantled, all hard drives will be crushed and destroyed, and all materials will be sent to sound downstream sources.

To find your GREENspot go to www.aslgreenspot.com.