County residents have legal options for electronics disposal

Five months after being banned from throwing away their computers, televisions and other electronics in the county landfill, Beaufort County residents can now legally dispose of these items at county disposal sites.

That legal disposal was made possible by the opening of two electronics-recycling centers.

County residents may bring their unwanted, nonworking or outdated electronics to two sites — the Buck Jones disposal site south of the Pamlico River and the River Road disposal site north of the river — for recycling, according to Jim Chrisman, assistant county manager.

These locations were chosen because there is enough room at each site for an additional disposal bin, Chrisman told the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners on Monday.

In July 2010, the N.C. General Assembly approved legislation requiring electronics equipment to be recycled and establishing an electronics recycling program for the state with shared responsibility between manufacturers, retailers, local and state government and consumers.

The law banned televisions, computers, monitors, printers, scanners and computer peripherals such as keyboards and mice from disposal in landfills effective July 1, 2011.

Since the law went into effect, Beaufort County has “struggled” to develop a plan that would comply with it, Chrisman told the commissioners.

While the City of Washington sponsored an electronics-recycling day earlier this year, until now, county residents have not had anywhere to legally dispose of these items on a regular basis.

Recently these electronics — including a number of televisions — have been discarded along the roadsides in the county by people who could not find a place to dispose of them, Chrisman told the board.

The law covers any desktop computer, notebook computer, monitor or video display unit for a computer system, and the keyboard, mice, other peripheral equipment and a printing device such as a printer, a scanner, a combination print/scanner/fax machine, among other equipment, according to information from the N.C. Division of Waste Management.

Televisions, including those containing cathode-ray tubes, plasma, liquid-crystal display, digital-light processing or similar devices also are covered by the ban, according to DWM information.

The Buck Jones site is located on the Clay Bottom School Road in Blount’s Creek. The River Road site is located just east of Washington on the Magnolia School Road, according to information provided by the county.

Both sites are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Sundays, according to information provided by the county.