High-Tech Recycling Event Set Saturday

The city of Los Angeles, in a joint venture with a Hawthorne-based company, has undertaken a high-tech recycling effort.

In partnership with All Tech Computer Recyclers, the city will hold a Computer and Electronics Recycling Day at Pierce College in Woodland Hills. From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday in the parking lot at Victory Boulevard and Mason Avenue, the public can drop off old electronic equipment ranging from computers to cellular phones.

“The city has discovered that there is more and more ‘e-waste’--electronic and computer waste--out there. We are trying to provide somewhere people can responsibly dispose of these things,” said Wayne Omakawa, project director with the Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation.

All Tech recycles computer and technological equipment. The company will be responsible for collection and removal of the devices.

While in the business of making money, All Tech also works to fill an ecological need.

“We’re doing it because it needs to be done,” said Randy Lewis, All Tech’s general manager. “There are very few companies in the Southern California area that concentrate on recycling computers. If the computers are essentially metals, plastics and circuit boards, there’s no reason for them to go into landfills. We can keep this stuff out of landfills by recycling it.”

Some equipment will be refurbished and resold. Some will be broken down into components that can be reused and recycled, Lewis said.

This will be the second such collection day held by All Tech and the city. At the first, in November in Rancho Park, about 1,000 people brought old computers--and the event wasn’t even advertised. This time, organizers have sent out 80,000 mailers to residents and businesses in the area surrounding Pierce College.

Similar events are being planned for the Hollywood and South Bay areas and possibly the East Valley, Omakawa said.

Furniture, refrigerators, washing machines, clothes dryers, microwave and conventional ovens, batteries, paper, computer software and household hazardous wastes will not be accepted.

Arrangements can be made to have large quantities of equipment picked up by calling All Tech at (310) 978-2790.

Contributions are not tax deductible.