Published: June 16, 2008 12:10 am      

RECYCLING: Buffalo facility reclaims discarded electronics

If computers and televisions believe in reincarnation, Electronic Recycling Technologies is their pathway to nirvana.

Inside this soon-to-be 150,000-square-foot facility in Buffalo, workers dismantle tons of electronic devices — everything from old Intel 486 processors to printers and copiers — hauled in from towns and school districts across the state and parts of Pennsylvania.

All but approximately 1 percent of what gets processed is sent to recycling facilities in the U.S. to be reclaimed, keeping hazardous components such as lead, mercury and cadmium out of local landfills and incinerators. Most of what gets trashed is Styrofoam and the composite board, or decorative “wood,” that houses television sets.

The company currently employs nine people at its facility on Fougeron Street, in the former Wonder Bread factory, but is in the midst of tripling its facility and soon will employ more workers to accommodate the growing demand.

“It’s exciting stuff. This is the time to be in the e-waste business,” said Electronic Recycling Vice President Cassie Gruber, a Town of Tonawanda native and Kenmore West graduate who joined the company three years ago, starting out in the shop dismantling devices.

So just what is in these electronics, and why can’t they be disposed of in the trash? “The typical computer monitor will contain four to six pounds of lead, and a TV has as much as eight or nine pounds,” said Electronics Recycling President Michael Lodick.

The lead is safe when it is contained in such devices, because it serves a protective purpose. “But when it’s time to get rid of it, that’s when it becomes a problem,” according to Lodick. “It’s far too much lead loading to go into a landfill or an incinerator.” Many states have banned landfilling of certain electronics.

Exposure to high levels of lead, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, can severely damage the brain and kidneys, and lead is particularly harmful to young children.

Electronics Recycling receives truckloads of obsolete equipment every day, and the dismantled parts eventually become plastic, metal or glass scrap. “Right now, with the state of the economy and the U.S. dollar, all of the metals and plastics have even more value,” Lodick said.

Aside from being illegal, landfilling computers means precious metal is being discarded as well.

“If one were to throw out a tractor trailer load of computers, you’re literally burying gold,” Lodick said, adding that it’s “silly” and “tremendously wasteful” to dispose of electronics. A computer may contain only a few ounces of gold, but that adds up with each load brought in, he said.

Its largest customer is Erie 1 Board of Cooperative Education Services, covering approximately 120 school districts, including Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda Schools. Lodick estimates his facility will get 12,000 to 15,000 pieces of equipment between now and October, just from BOCES. Any machinery that can be refurbished is fixed up and sold to schools and charitable organizations at a discounted rate.

The company also contracts with Erie County, which typically holds six electronics drop off events a year, including one recently held at the General Motors plant in the Town of Tonawanda. The GM site processed 500 cars in five hours, and yielded nearly 400 TVs and computer monitors.

“We kept close to two tons of lead out of local landfills and incinerators,” Lodick said.

Electronic Recycling pays commercial customers for computers and laptops, but charges for televisions and monitors, because of the lead content.

With the federally mandated switch from analog to digitally transmitted cable looming next year, Lodick says his facility will be taking in lots of discarded televisions.

“The best estimate I’ve heard is that in the U.S. right now there are 380 million TVs in use. In the next five to six years, 90 percent of them will be discarded,” he said, adding that USA Today recently reported that some 22 million televisions will be thrown out, simply because people don’t believe those sets will work once the changeover occurs in February.

Standing before mounds of shrink-wrapped computers and TVs, Gruber said, “There’s value in all of this stuff. There’s value in every part of a computer.”

Contact reporter David J. Hill at 693-1000, ext. 115.