[July 12, 2011] Business recycles, reuses parts of aged electronic devices Tweet Jul 05, 2011 (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Jake Metz's one-room stone warehouse contains piles of printers, monitors and those colorful iMac G3s that were popular in the late 1990s. It's the home of Evolution E-Cycling, a company created to address the ever-growing problem of how to handle electronic waste. Getting rid of electronic devices can be a hassle; most cannot be simply thrown out or placed with typical recyclables. As legislation overseeing the disposal of electronics, or e-waste, has tightened in Pennsylvania and nationwide, a number of companies -- such as Evolution E-Cycling -- are helping customers to recycle old technology in ways that keep the environment safe and their private data secure. "Nationwide, 15 to 20 percent of e-scrap is being recycled," said Chris Metz, vice president of Evolution E-Cycling and Jake's younger brother. "We just think it can be so much more, even starting in our region." The Metz brothers operate their startup business out of a rented warehouse in Robinson with their high school acquaintance, Scott Spear. The 3,000-square-foot space houses computer mice, keyboards, batteries, servers, monitors and assorted other electronics. PG VIDEO: COMPANY SPECIALIZES IN RECYCLING COMPUTERS, ELECTRONICS Hard drives are kept locked inside a bright blue bin, and other containers hold the metals that come from disassembling the devices. During a recent visit, 80 printers from the Bradford School on the South Side sat in neat rows, waiting to be taken apart for a fee of $2 or $3 each. "All this stuff is just at the end of its life," said Jake Metz, the company's president, as he gestured to the stacks of broken-down technology. "With planned obsolescence, things just wear out." The Metz brothers and Mr. Spear dismantle many of the electronics themselves and then send the components to vendors who further recycle the parts. They overwrite hard drives to make the information on them irretrievable, but they also give customers the option of having the disks shredded. Since the business opened in March, Jake Metz said Evolution E-Cycling had focused on the customer service it can offer as a small startup and has garnered 40 to 50 customers that include schools, companies and individuals. Along with computers, Evolution E-Cycling also accepts technologies such as cell phones, faxes, copiers and televisions. It sells the metals these devices yield -- among them tin, copper, silver and gold -- at local scrap yards. The handling of e-waste shifted from a concern of environmentalists to a matter supervised by the government in November, when Pennsylvania passed legislation that will require developers and manufacturers to establish recycling programs for computers and televisions by January 2012 and instruct retailers to provide information about how these materials should be recycled. It will become illegal to discard these electronics in landfills the following January. Desktop computers, laptops, monitors and televisions pose risks to the environment as they often contain lead, mercury, flame retardants and other hazardous metals, Pennsylvania Department of Energy spokesman Kevin Sunday said. "These metals have the potential to contaminate soil, ground water streams and waterways, potentially affecting vegetation, aquatic life, local flora and fauna for adverse human health effects if ingested," Mr. Sunday said. The Metz brothers say they are marketing Evolution E-Cycling as a small, fast company that will visit its clients, consult with them and pick up their materials -- services meant to set them apart from others in the electronics recycling niche. Goodwill of Southwestern Pennsylvania has collected and refurbished computers for resale since the mid-1990s and launched the Dell Reconnect program in partnership with Dell computers -- allowing people to drop off old computers to be wiped of data and recycled free of cost at participating Goodwill locations -- in August 2007. In 2010 alone, Goodwill of Southwestern Pennsylvania collected nearly 18,000 computers and recycled 2.5 million pounds of e-waste, said David Tobiczyk, vice president of marketing and development. The organization accepted more than 87,000 used electronics, including cell phones, printers and other devices. "We've been a pioneer in reuse and recycling for more than a hundred years," Mr. Tobiczyk said. "We've been reusing donated items for quite a long time, so obviously we see the importance in reuse and recycling." Mr. Tobiczyk said Goodwill soon would also recycle televisions, in anticipation of when the state legislation banning televisions from landfills takes effect. Pennsylvania is one of 25 states with e-waste laws, according to the National Center for Electronics Recycling. West Virginia first passed legislation in 2008, while New York followed in 2010. Ohio has no e-waste laws, according to data from the center. Alison Griswold: [email protected] or 412-263-1410. To see more of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.post-gazette.com. Copyright (c) 2011, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]