Anyone looking for a place to dispose of that PC dinosaur from 1995 taking up too much room and attracting too must dust may drop it by Riverside Park Saturday morning.
Allen County 4-H members, in cooperation with SEK Recycling of Pittsburg, will accept all sorts of e-waste — TVs, computers, digital cameras — at a recycling station set up next to the rodeo concession stand from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
“It will be easily accessible and the 4-H kids will take just about any electronic waste, although we will reserve the right to refuse non-approved items and close down early if the volume is too great,” said Carla Nemecek, Southwind Extension agriculture agent whose duties include working with 4-H clubs.
“We do hope to have a good turnout,” she said. “When they had a similar collection in Neosho County, vehicles were lined up all around the block.”
The waste collection is for individuals, not businesses that might have a small truckload of debris. However, Nemecek said she didn’t think anyone would fuss if a business owner carried in a single computer.
SEK Recycling has been involved in a previous e-waste collection in Iola, through a project of students in the Iola High School gifted program, which produced enough recyclables to fill a 10-by-12-foot room.
The Pittsburg company will have a semitrailer at the park and will provide shrink wrap and pallets for transporting the electronic gadgets. The city of Iola will make a forklift available to load the pallets once they are ready for transport.
Everything collected here will be recycled in the United States.
“SEK Recycling has pledged none will be shipped overseas,” Nemecek said, although much of what will be collected likely began life in another country.
“WE HAD been looking for a countywide 4-H service project for quite a while when the chance to recycle e-waste came up earlier this year,” Nemecek said.
“This is a neat program, one that we all think the 4-H members are going to enjoy doing and one that will be helpful for many people in the community,” she said.
The approved list of devices that will be accepted are television sets, computers and monitors, digital cameras, stereos, audio-visual equipment, cell phones, conventional telephones, microwaves, VCRs and DVD and CD players.
Anyone with questions may call the Extension office, 365-2242.
