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After playing to rave reviews at the University and South Street campus locations, UMass Medical School’s electronics recycling road show comes to 100 Century Drive in Worcester on Friday, Oct. 11.
The event will run in the building’s parking lot from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and is open to all members of the UMMS and UMass Memorial Health Care community.
“This is one of our most popular programs, so we want to move it around to reach more of our community,” said Melissa Lucas, sustainability and energy manager. “It’s still open to all students, faculty and staff, regardless of where they are based, but we look forward to giving the people at Century Drive a convenient opportunity to bring in those items that have been collecting dust in the basement or garage.”
People need to show a valid ID badge, either from the UMMS or UMass Memorial, to participate. Most electronic items will be taken free of charge, with the exception of a $15 fee for CRT (tube) computer monitors, and a 55-cents-per-pound fee for alkaline batteries or television sets with picture tubes.
On collection day, almost any item with an electric power cord or battery pack will be accepted. Common items collected at these events in the past include:
• air conditioners, dehumidifiers, radios, small household appliances, microwave ovens, televisions, speakers
• batteries, battery-operated tools
• cell phones, device chargers, telephones
• circuit boards, computers (laptops and towers), modems, monitors, desktop scanners, fax machines, printers, routers, servers, switches
• holiday lights, other lighting fixtures (no bulbs)
• medical equipment, fire alarm components
• ballasts, wire
The recycling events are sponsored by the UMMS Sustainability Committee and Northeast Material Handling of Lowell. Since Earth Day of 2011, a total of 11 events have been held, with 75,633 pounds of electronic items collected from the school and hospital community.
“That’s a tremendous amount of material diverted from landfills and put back into the economy through various reuse and recovery processes,” said John Baker, associate vice chancellor of facilities management at UMMS. “It is individual actions, like participating in a program like this, that really add up and help us as an institution to meet our sustainability goals.”
For more information about the event send an email to recycling@umassmed.edu.
