The traffic might have rivaled some of the snarled routes ferrying the mountain- and beach-bound on a beautiful summer morning. But the snail’s pace bottlenecking the area around Central Bucks South High School in Warrington on Saturday was for, as many would argue, a far worthier cause.
Hundreds of residents from Bucks and Montgomery counties sat in lines leading to the school parking lot for up to an hour to take advantage of the 2013 Southeastern Pennsylvania Household Hazardous Waste and Old Computer Collection Program.
One of five such events planned for Bucks County this year, it allows residents to safely dispose of the batteries, pesticides, oil-based paints, fluorescent lamps, caustic cleaners and other flammable and toxic products sitting in their basements and garages. TVs, cellphones, computers and printers also were collected.
“I’ve been waiting for this day,” said Marge McDonagh of Doylestown Township, who didn’t mind the hour it took to get her chemicals into the parking lot, where dozens of workers were on hand to help residents unload their vehicles and sort the steady stream of materials coming in. “I’m a big recycler. I believe in it.”
Despite the wait, Mary Zayachek of Plumstead, who brought a small TV, cables, old batteries and “electrical odds and ends,” believed the programs are efficiently run.
“They do such a great job,” she said. “They know where to send it and take care of everything so you don’t have to worry about it drifting somewhere it shouldn’t be.”
Saturday was the first time the collection, a service of the Bucks County Board of Commissioners and participating municipalities, offered the opportunity for the drop-off of both electronic and hazardous waste. Separate drop-offs for each have been held in the past.
Art Feltes, the Bucks County recycling coordinator overseeing the event, said that decision likely accounted for the crawling traffic. By 9:30 a.m., just a half hour into the program, he’d already counted 450 cars. He estimated hitting 2,000 by the 3 p.m. closing time.
“And that’s probably going to be on the low side,” said Feltes.
He expected to collect about 140,000 pounds of electronics — 80 to 85 percent being TVs — and 70,000 pounds of hazardous waste. The rise in TVs from previous collections, where they accounted for about 40 percent of electronics brought in, is due to the state’s Covered Device Recycling Act.
Passed in 2010, it requires manufacturers to offer recycling programs to consumers for all covered devices, including computers and televisions. According to Feltes, a ban enacted in January as part of the CDRA prohibits such electronics from being put out with the trash for pick-up by municipal waste haulers.
“People can’t throw out their tube TVs and monitors. The reason for the law is they wanted to keep the lead out of the landfills and a CRT has glass with a lot of lead in it,” he said, adding the ban also fueled Saturday’s impressive turnout.
Upper Moreland’s Arthur Krol has seen several TVs in the trash while walking his neighborhood but has also noticed they never get picked up.
“Rather than sneak it out in the trash, I came here to do it the right way and save the environment,” he said of the monitor, scanner and disk drives he brought with him. “I’m getting rid of a lot of old junk.”
The county collaborated with Electronic Recyclers International, the largest e-waste recycler in the United States, and Clean Harbors, which provides hazardous waste disposal among its many environmental, energy and industrial services, to hold the collection.
“We’re doing a great thing for the earth, keeping these materials out of the air, the land and the water,” said Tammy Shegerian, chief operating officer of ERI, who was on site interacting with residents Saturday. “These events are a great way to serve the community, and we’re happy to do it.”
* Although we have archived this news article on our website, the original article may no longer exist.