WE RECYCLE:

• computers
• laptops
• monitors
• keyboards
• cell phones
• printers
• scanners
• electric typewriters
• sound equipment
• projectors
• other University electronic equipment

WE DO NOT RECYCLE:

• personally purchased TVs and VCRs
• personally purchased computers, monitors, and laptops 

HOW & WHERE TO RECYCLE:

• At UST, if you have unwanted electronic equipment that belongs to the University, Informational Resources & Technologies should be contacted at 962-6230. They will either pick up the equipment themselves and evaluate for possible campus reallocation or they will contact the Recycling team to pick up the equipment for reprocessing.
• Unwanted electronic equipment that was purchased by the University may also be dropped off at the Recycling Center located on the loading dock of the Physical Plant.
• Because of the expense of processing unwanted electronics, the Recycling Center cannot accept personally owned electronics for recycling.  But depending on where you live, you may be able to recycle your unwanted electronics for free or for a small fee.  Please check with Green Guardian, for a recycling guide of where your electronics may be recycled in the Twin Cities Metro area. 
• Electronic equipment that cannot be reallocated internally or externally must be sent to a local processor so that no hazardous material goes into area landfills. A small rebate may be given for reclaimed precious metals, but the processing charge is a much greater expense for the University than any value recouped.

FACTS ABOUT ELECTRONICS: 

• On May 8, 2007, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty signed a new law for the collection and recycling of video display devices sold to households/consumers: televisions, computer monitors, and laptop computers. Manufacturers of video display devices (VDD) will register and pay a fee to the state, and collect and recycle VDD from households/consumers in Minnesota. The first year of the program begins July 1, 2007. Minnesota's Electronic Recycling law: H.F. 854

• The computer, monitor and keyboard sitting on your desk are classified as post-consumer hazardous waste.  They contain materials such as the lead in the glass of the monitor's cathode ray tube, silver, the lead solder in older CPU boards, and PCBs in some electronic components, all of which must be kept out of our landfills.
• "In the United States, electronic waste has been less of a legislative priority.  One of only three countries to sign but not ratify the Basel Convention (the other two are Haiti and Afghanistan), it does not require green design or take-back programs of manufacturers, though a few states have stepped in with their own laws... The result of the federal hands-off policy is that the greater part of e-waste sent to domestic recyclers is shunted overseas. 'We in the developed world get the benefit from these devices,' says Jim Puckett, head of Basel Action Network, or BAN, a group that opposes hazardous waste shipments to developing nations.  'But when our equipment becomes unusable, we externalize the real environmental costs and liabilities to the developing world.'"  -Chris Carroll, "High-Tech Trash," National Geographic, Jan 08
• Studies estimate that 315 to 600 million desktop and laptop computers in the U.S. will soon be obsolete. Discarded computers and other consumer electronics (so called e-waste) are the fastest growing portion of our waste stream -- growing almost 3 times faster than our overall municipal waste stream. One report estimates that a pile of these obsolete computers would reach a mile high and cover six acres. That's the same as a 22-story pile of e-waste covering the entire 472 square miles of the City of Los Angeles.  -Computer Take Back Campaign 2006

• In the United States, it is estimated that more than 70 percent of discarded computers and monitors, and well over 80 percent of TVs, eventually end up in landfills, despite a growing number of state laws that prohibit dumping of e-waste, which may leak lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, beryllium, and other toxics into the ground. Meanwhile, a staggering volume of unused electronic gear sits in storage—about 180 million TVs, desktop PCs, and other components as of 2005, according to the EPA.   -Chris Carroll, "High-Tech Trash," National Geographic, Jan 08

• The 315 million or more computers that have or will become obsolete contain a total of more than 1.2 billion pounds of lead. About 40% of the heavy metals, including lead, mercury and cadmium, in landfills come from electronic equipment discards. The health effects of lead are well known; just 1/70th of a teaspoon of mercury can contaminate 20 acres of a lake, making the fish unfit to eat.  -Computer Take Back Campaign 2006
• Only about 10 percent of all discarded computers are recycled in the U.S., meaning millions of computers could be leaking harmful chemicals into groundwater. Some states, like Massachusetts, ban TV sets and computer monitors from landfills outright. -Tom Krazit, "Trash that computer in an eco-friendly way," CNET News, 26 April 06
• The Basel Action Network, a U.S. group campaigning for a crack-down on hazardous waste, said last year 500 containers of computers were being shipped into Lagos every month. As many as 75 per cent of these ended up being dumped and burned, releasing hazardous fumes that can contain lead, cadmium, barium, beryllium, mercury and brominated flame retardants used in computer manufacture. The United Nations estimates that 20 to 50 million tonnes of electronic waste is produced every year, and checks by an European watchdog last year showed that 48 per cent of EU waste exports were illegal. -Oliver Bullough, “African deaths highlight illegal toxic-waste trade,” The Toronto Star, 27 Sep 06
• A groundbreaking investigation by an international coalition of environmental organizations has revealed that huge quantities of hazardous electronic wastes (E-wastes) are being exported to China, Pakistan and India where they are processed in operations that are extremely harmful to human health and the environment… The investigation uncovered an entire area known as Guiyu in Quangdong Province, surrounding the Lianjiang River just 4 hours drive northeast of Hong Kong where about 100,000 poor migrant workers are employed breaking apart and processing obsolete computers imported primarily from North America. The workers were found to be using 19th century technologies to clean up the wastes from the 21st century. The operations involve men, women and children toiling under primitive conditions, often unaware of the health and environmental hazards involved in operations which include open burning of plastics and wires, riverbank acid works to extract gold, melting and burning of toxic soldered circuit boards and the cracking and dumping of toxic lead laden cathode ray tubes. The investigative team witnessed many tons of the E-waste simply being dumped along rivers, in open fields and irrigation canals in the rice growing area. Already the pollution in Guiyu has become so devastating that well water is no longer drinkable and thus water has to be trucked in from 30 kilometers away for the entire population. -Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, "High-Tech Toxic Trash From USA Found to be Flooding Asia," News Release, 25 Feb 02
• An increasing number of PC manufacturers offer trade-in programs for computers.  Among the companies who now offer rebates or programs to take back their computers are Dell, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, Apple, and IBM.  These programs are different; most companies only take old computers when new ones are bought.  Some companies charge for this recycling service; some do not. Some give rebates.  Dell will begin taking all Dell computers back in September of 06.   Details of the different programs are available at computertakeback.com which monitors and lobbies computer manufacturers to take responsibility for the recycling of electronics. [July 06]
• It is estimated over 130 million cellular phones are being disposed of annually. According to Inform, Inc, many consumers also store old cell phones because they are unsure of how to discard them and it is estimated that may add 500 million cell phones to the situation. With toxic elements like lead and mercury found in each mobile unit, it is important to keep cell phones out of landfills and incinerators.

• According to industry figures, cellphone use in the United States has surged, to more than 128 million subscribers last year from 340,000 in 1985. Typically, each phone is used for 18 months before being dropped for a newer model.  That is starting to add up to a huge amount of waste, says Inform, an environmental organization that issued a report this year on old phones. The Environmental Protection Agency helped finance the study.   By 2005, the report estimates, 130 million cellphones will be thrown out each year. Counting the phones, batteries and chargers, that comes to 65,000 tons a year, the report said. Although some phones may just stay unused in desk drawers, the report said, most will end up in landfills or being incinerated.   "This is becoming a very serious problem, because the amount of cellphone waste is growing tremendously," said Eric Most, director of the solid waste prevention program at Inform. "These chemicals accumulate and persist in the environment. They get in the plants, soil, water, and then move up the stream to humans."           -Anahad O’Connor, “Environmentalists Identify New Menace: Discarded Cellphones,” New York Times 8 Oct 02

• "In general, computer equipment is a complicated assembly of more than 1,000 materials, many of which are highly toxic, such as chlorinated and brominated substances, toxic gases, toxic metals, biologically active materials, acids, plastics and plastic additives. The health impacts of the mixtures and material combinations in the products often are not known. The production of semiconductors, printed circuit boards, disk drives and monitors uses particularly hazardous chemicals, and workers involved in chip manufacturing are now beginning to come forward and reporting cancer clusters. In addition, new evidence is emerging that computer recyclers have high levels of dangerous chemicals in their blood." (from Just Say No to E-Waste: Background Documents on Hazards and Waste from Computers) from The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition 12/10/99
• According to Eric Buechel, president of Advanced Recovery, a Belleville, New Jersey electronics recycling company, a single computer monitor with its lead-based glass cathode ray tube has more lead in it than all of the old paint in an average New England Home (cited in Resource Recycling, August '98)
• Huge quantities of hazardous electronic wastes are being exported to China, Pakistan and India where they are processed in operations that are extremely harmful to human health and the environment according to a report by an international coalition of environmental organizations. The operations involve men, women and children toiling under primitive conditions, often unaware of the health and environmental hazards involved in operations which include open burning of plastics and wires, riverbank acid works to extract gold, melting and burning of toxic soldered circuit boards and the cracking and dumping of toxic lead laden cathode ray tubes. The organizations behind the investigation - the international Basel Action Network (BAN) and the California community group Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (SVTC), with support from Toxics Link India, Greenpeace China and SCOPE (Pakistan) - document numerous areas where the remains of America's high-tech revolution poison the land and water on which local people depend. The investigative team saw tons of electronic wastes being dumped along rivers, in open fields and irrigation canals in the rice growing area. -Cat Lazaroff, "High-Tech U.S. Trash Floods Asia," at Environment News Service
• Computer components may contain small amounts of gold, silver, and platinum in the printed wiring boards and connectors. But the metal is difficult to separate from the rest of the materials, some of which may be hazardous.  For this reason, all electronic components which are no longer usable should be sent to an area processor such as Asset Recovery, 2299 Territorial Rd., St. Paul, MN 55114 or Retrofit Recycling, 2960 Yorkton Blvd., Little Canada, MN 55117 or Veolia [formerly Vasko Rubbish], 309 Como Ave., St. Paul, MN 55103.  There is a charge for this service.
• "While many arguments can be made about how computers save energy (fossil fuels used in transportation are saved by telecommuting, microprocessor energy management systems save heating and cooling energy in buildings, tiny computers save gasoline in new automobiles), the rapidly increasing number of computers and printers exerts a huge new demand on energy resources. Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory estimate power consumption from typical office computing to equal the demand of lighting, which historically has been the largest single consumer of electricity. Add to this the increased costs of cooling the building in which the computers are located." from How to Make Compu-Stew from Environmental Education on the Internet, 10/17/98
• One of the primary recipient of UST reusable electronic components has been the Detwiler Foundation.  In 1996 the Detwiler Foundation became the Computers for Schools Foundation.  The Computers For Schools Foundation is a national not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing affordable computer resources for education. They take donated equipment, groom them for educational use and make them available to schools as well as non-profits on a cost recovery basis. Their toll-free phone number is 800-939-6000.
• Instead of dumping unwanted equipment, consider donating your reusable electronic components directly to a nonprofit or local school. There's a huge demand for working computers, but you have to find out who needs them. The public libraries maintain directories of nonprofit organizations in our local area. Read through their listings to locate an organization you would like to support and give them a call.  Good places to check are favorite charities, trade schools that teach computer repair, schools, and religious institutions. If you have a favorite charity, such as the United Way or Goodwill Industries, call its local administrative offices and ask if donations are welcome. Many local offices of United Way and Goodwill accept donations but may require systems meet certain configuration and functional requirements. After having too much junk electronics dumped on them in past years, charitable organizations are much more cautious in accepting electronic donations. 
• The University of St. Thomas donates its unwanted but useable electronics to non-profits who are registered under Minnesota state tax laws.  Other electronics are given to licensed re-processsors who charge UST for their services.

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