Do you have an old TV sitting in your basement that you¡¯ve been waiting to get rid of? Or perhaps some broken computer speakers that you didn¡¯t know how to dispose of? Bring these and many other hard-to-recycle items to our free recycling event on Friday, May 7th, 8am-2pm in the Pierce Parking lot (located at E 55th St and S Greenwood Ave).
Because there are few options for recycling e-waste on the South Side, the Office of Sustainability is offering this recycling event to the University community as an opportunity to responsibly dispose of difficult-to-recycle items. While the event focuses on e-waste, many more items will be accepted, including Styrofoam and furniture. Please consult the list below for an overview of all accepted items.
If you¡¯re unable to make the event on the 7th, we are also offering four convenient drop-off locations starting Monday May 3rd. All items will be picked up by 8am on Friday May 7th. Look for large (4¡¯ x 4¡¯) boxes at each of these locations:
Electronic waste, or e-waste, is anything you want to get rid of that has a plug, a battery, or was once electric equipment or component of electric equipment (like fans, calculators, disk drives, computers, keyboards, space heaters, etc).
E-waste has significant consequences for the environment once it gets into landfills. Electronic equipment often includes contaminants such as lead, cadmium, beryllium, mercury, and brominated flame retardants. All of these contaminants can leach into the water supply once disposed of in landfill, causing significant health and environmental impacts.
In 2007, the U.S. generated 3 million tons of e-waste. You can help by bringing your outdated, broken, or unused electronics to our event on May 7th.
Our Chicago-area partner, Intercon Solutions, disassembles and recycles every component of every item that enters their facility in order to divert these potentially toxic materials from our wastestream. After "de-manufacturing" electronics and other items, the scraps are sold domestically. To learn more about the process, watch this video.