Hard Driving Recycling
Sure, some of us have considered giving away our computers, especially when their internal engines manage to frustrate us by wandering far from our intentions. In the muck of such heated times, battling emotions rise with urges to drop-kick the contraption and be done with it, for the moment. Eventually, tempers cool and the computer remains. But what happens when these problems become systemic or the computer out-dated or too slow? Rather than give in to a foot volley with your hard drive, acquiesce to the recently roaming Holiday Spirit of Giving and try what we at Goodness Greeness did: RECYLE!
After hosting several successful Hazardous Waste and Electronics Drop-Off Days and finishing three years of planning, this last November the City of Chicago was finally primed to open the Household Products and Electronics Collection and Training Center (HPECTC).
This means the city now offers regular, part-time hours for year-round disposal of not only computer monitors, hard-drives, and related items like printers, print cartridges, mouses (mice?), and keyboards but also cell phones, aerosol and oil-based paints, paint cleaners, solvents, and thinners, used motor oil, household batteries, cleaning products, lead acid batteries, drain cleaners, antifreeze, fluorescent lamp bulbs, propane tanks, herbicides, insecticides, pool chemicals, hobby chemicals, old gasoline, and mercury. None of these items should be thrown out in regular trash. They pose environmental risks in landfills with contamination that spreads uncontrolled. So this center is a big deal.
The center is located on Goose Island, at 1150 N. Branch Street and they’re open two days a week (Tuesday and Thursday) and the first Saturday of every month. The site used to be incinerator operation that was closed down around 1998. It was then used for storage of city vehicles, like sewer vacuum trucks. In 2003, the Department of Environment began plans to convert the center and in 2005 construction began to finish 24,000 square-feet for HPECTC. It cost some $3,800,000.
Entering through the gates, signs direct patrons to specific drop sites for specific materials. After unloading, items are sorted depending on certain guidelines. The items with sufficient BTU value (British Thermal Unit, a unit that measures the heat value or energy content of an item)—such as oil or gasoline, are sent to secondary fuel or fuel blending facilities. Batteries are sent to a recycling facility where their metal components are removed and recycled. Hazardous chemicals are sent to specially constructed incinerators with advanced pollution control systems. And any other items that can’t be recycled or incinerated or sent to landfills specially constructed to store hazardous waste.
And an even bigger deal is electronics. They, like our Goodness Greeness computers and the old computers and cell phones employees brought from home, are recycled or refurbished at the training center located on site. First, all hard drives are wiped clean. Then, important product components are repaired and re-used. The refurbished computers end up being sent to schools, churches, non-profit groups, and low-income families.
Recycling at HPECTC becomes a gift. Through a partnership with the Illinois Department of Corrections and Computers for Schools, the training program at the center is designed to equip ex-offenders in electronics recycling. It is an 11-week program that provides training, internships, and job placement assistance in this growing industry that is focused on conserving energy.
Having been offered by the city this responsible opportunity, it became a reward to donate all these computers. For all those curious about our business handlings without them, not to worry! We didn’t give away all our computers. We still have to organize and track our organic produce transactions with the help of those rascally, essential, and sometimes wonderful computers. So we still wrestle with them. But for the old ones, the tried and…true? They’ve been gently laid to rest to one day rise again, equipping important individuals with the astounding ability of conserving energy by fixing and understanding the inner-mysteries of Computer.
Mercedee Renz, Goodness Greeness
Facility Information:
Household Products and Electronics Collection and Training Center
1150 N. North Branch Street
Chicago, IL 60622
Hours of operation for drop-offs:
Tuesday (7am—12pm)
Thursday (2pm—7pm)
First Saturday of every month (8am—3pm)
Items not accepted:
Agricultural wastes, business/commercial sector wastes, smoke detectors, explosives, farm machinery oil, fireworks, fire extinguishers, institutional wastes, medical wastes.
Coming Soon:
Other electronic items such as VCR’s, stereos, and televisions.
