E-waste event packs in the junk

Approximately 30 tons of old and used electronics were dropped off at an “e-waste” collection event Saturday.

F&H Office Systems and Unity Church hosted the free electronic waste collection drive from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the church parking lot on Victory Drive, where residents brought in rundown printers, computer monitors, home entertainment equipment and cell phones for recycling, organizers said.

“I believe every day is an Earth day,” F&H owner Joseph Fischer said. “It cost the community so much more to get rid of this stuff.”

Donating old electronics to trained professionals, rather than dumping the items in a landfill, is also safer for the community, Mayor Jess Talamantes said.

“Once you start replacing things, your first question is, ‘What do I do with it?’” he said. “We don’t want people to put it in the landfill, put it in their trash cans, so the more of these that we have, the more options we have.”

David Martinyan, president of Sun Valley-based All E-Waste Electronic Recycling, said the electronics collected will go to his drop-off center, where components would be stripped of hazardous materials and recycled.

Electronics contain fire retardants, heavy metals and other materials that are challenging to remove, said Kreigh Hampel, the city’s public works recycling coordinator.

“Collecting electronics is just a really good policy,” he said. “The state has banned them from landfills, so they have to be taken care of very carefully.”

The city collects 250 tons of electronic waste per year, Hampel said.

Fischer said he planned to donate any funds collected after recycling to the California Product Stewardship Council and Unity Church.