Electronic waste building up after waste pick-up program postponed

By Brieun Scott

Friday, July 11, 2008

Phil Hauptman didn’t know what to do when he realized that old electronics would not be collected on campus.

The KU Environmental Stewardship Program announced last week that it would postpone electronics waste pick-up. The environmental stewardship program recycles everything from paper and plastic to aluminum and telephones.

“Everything is kind of in limbo right now,” said Hauptman, director of information technology for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

His won’t be the only department affected by the change.

Up until last week, the KU Environmental Stewardship Program organized a system called e-recycle, which recycled different kinds of electronics such as PCs, monitors and PUS’s.

Celeste Hoins, program manager of the Environmental Stewardship Program, said the reason they stopped collecting is because the vendor they used went out of business. She said the program was working on a proposal for an alternative solution.

“We’re working on a proposal to present options on where the program should be,” Hoins said.

Hoins said the proposal would address three options.

The first option would be to create a method in which electronic waste could be re-used. The second option would be to seek out the location for recycling electronic waste. The last option, which Hoins said would be the last resort, would be throwing items away.

She said the main goal would be to develop a program under their department, but until then, she hoped people would hold onto the electronics until the program established a plan.

Cassandra Ford, manager at the City of Lawrence Waste Reduction and Recycling, said electronics are more common because of growing technology and the city received many electronic waste items from individuals at the facility.

Hauptman said his field technicians eliminated many kinds of electronics, and that the absence of a removal program would affect a lot of departments.

“I haven’t had time to explore what the options are,” Hauptman said. “Right now we’re just sitting on them.”

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