It’s one of the most popular events held at Willamette Hall. While the home of the University of Oregon’s Physics Department is known for hosting science lectures throughout the year, it is the building’s electronic waste drop-off service that’s drawing a crowd.
The department provides a space 3-4 times a year for people to drop off electronic waste or “e-waste.” The electronics are housed there until Campus Operations picks them up and delivers them to NextStep Recycling, an independent organization located in Eugene, for proper disposal.
According to Oregon’s Electronics Recycling Law, it is illegal to dispose of televisions, computers, laptops or monitors in a landfill. The aim behind the law is to reduce the amount of waste that ends up in landfills and to ensure valuable metals get reused and recycled.
The building’s manager Patty Valenzuela has described the event as very popular and now she wishes to make the program more available to the occupants of all the buildings but not all buildings have the staff available to organize such a drop off event.
While the service is able to attract staff participants from other University departments, it is one of the few opportunities for University students to drop off their e-waste on campus. The University is known for striving towards a zero waste policy, but it lacks the ability to allow students to drop off any of their personal e-waste on campus.
“In general, the UO handles UO property only and student personal electronics – basically anything with a chord… cell phones, cameras, computers and beyond, appliances as well – must be handled with through personal means,” said Karyn Kaplan, the Zero Waste Program Manager.
The student group “Climate Justice League” has tried to change this by getting receptacles that students and staff could drop e-waste off at. The group’s “Recycle E-Waste Campaign” hopes to have e-waste receptacles available to students by the end of Spring Term 2014.
“They were trying to do some type of grant proposal to get these receptacles that were almost like a mail box that students and staff could drop items off in it,” said Molly Lockhart, a Property Management Specialist with the UO Business Office.
Lockhart goes on to describe how their e-waste disposal station that the group ran briefly back in February of this year was met with minimal successes, stating that they only collected “some batteries and a printer.”
If an e-waste drop off box were to be installed on campus, it would have to be secure to protect electronics that have not had their memory erased. Otherwise, anyone could take whatever has been left inside and have access to any information on the device.
“You need a very secure box if you want to do a generalized [e-waste] collection,” said Sarah Grimm, a Waste Reduction Specialist with Lane County.
For many living off campus, it would be difficult to haul heavy electronics onto University property for drop off. Moreover, Lockhart said that having e-waste receptacles on campus housing properties would be desired by the residents of students living there.
“I think that within the student housing areas, [it] might be a good idea if there are receptacles there.”
Regardless of how you dispose of e-waste, it is important that every individual does so. Lane County has six available locations to drop off e-waste, with the closet to campus being that of Glenwood Central Receiving Station. Other nearby places to drop off e-waste include Next Step Recycling and Garten Services.
“Everything that goes in the garbage today instead of into the economy is going to negatively impact the rest of their future,” said Grimm.
Follow Eric Schucht on Twitter @EricSchucht