The Broadway Green Alliance Hosts First E-Waste Re-Use Day and Winter E-Waste Recycling Drive, 1/22 & 23

The Broadway Green Alliance (BGA) has announced the first E-Waste Re-Use Day along with the Winter E-Waste Recycling Drive. These two events are a part of the BGA's mission to keep e-waste out of landfills.

The first Re-Use Day will take place today, January 22, 2013 from 10:00am to 1:30pm in Club Room A at Local 802 (322 W 48th Street). From 10:00am-12:00pm, consumers can bring their still-useable electronic items and then from 11:00am - 1:00pm, these items will be available to take (in return for a small suggested donation.) This allows items to have another life before they get recycled. Acceptable items for donation are desktop and laptop computers, computer accessories, monitors, printers, faxes, scanners, small electronics, DVD players, DVRs, gaming consoles, PDAs, iPods, other e-devices and any electronic item that can be re-used. For this event, the BGA is unable to accept televisions or non-working items. iPods that are collected will be donated to the iPods for Alzheimer's Drive, run by Dave Roth, Broadway musician and Ambassador Advocate for the Alzheimer's Association.

Following Re-Use Day, the Winter E-Waste Recycling Drive will take place on Wednesday, January 23, 2013 from 11am to 1pm in the Minskoff Breezeway (45th and Broadway). Consumers are urged to bring unwanted desktop and laptop computers, printers, notebooks, TVs, monitors, computer accessories, home and cell phones, VCRs, DVDs, PDAs, and dry cell (household) batteries. For this event, the BGA cannot accept light bulbs, wet cell batteries, or household appliances.

E-waste, or electronic waste, refers to old electronic devices that are no longer wanted. These products contain dangerous toxins like lead and mercury that should not be thrown in with the rest of the trash, but should be reused or recycled instead. Although they are a small portion of the waste stream by volume, computers and electronics constitute the fastest growing component of the municipal waste stream and contribute to at least 40% of the toxicity found in landfills.

"Everyone at the BGA is excited for our first E-Waste Re-Use Day along with our now semi-annual Recycling Drive! It unites the Broadway community for a good cause - our nation dumps almost 400 million electronic items each year, and less than 20% of those are recycled," said Susan Sampliner, co-chair of the BGA. "We'd like to thank SL Green Realty and the Nederlander Organization for once again allowing us to use their premises for this important cause, and Local 802 for donating a space for the re-use day. As always we thank WeRecycle! for their help keeping e-waste out of landfills through our semi-annual E-Waste Recycling Drives."

Those planning to drop off large or bulky equipment to either event should contact green@broadway.org no later than Monday, January 21, 2013.