If the holidays are expected to bring you new electronics or you’ve been keeping an old console TV in the garage in hopes an electronics recycling event would appear, there’s good news on the calendar for you—and the environment.

Pennsylvania’s new Covered Device Recycling Act takes effect in January and requires the recycling of all TVs and computer equipment being discarded by
households, businesses and institutions.

The law also provides free recycling for these devices being disposed of by households and businesses with fewer than 50 employees. Larger businesses are required to pay for electronics recycling.

“For the last several weeks we have informed our customers that our collection
crews will not pick up TV’s and computer equipment beginning January 1, 2013,” said Erika Deyarmin, spokesman for Waste Management. “We’ve been contacting officials in municipalities where we have hauling contracts, other municipal leaders, and using billing notices to advise our customers of how the new law will affect their service because we want to be a good neighbor and minimize customer inconvenience.”

The “covered devices” that now must be recycled include all televisions and
computer equipment, including monitors, CPUs, laptops, printers, scanners,
keyboards, mouses, speakers and any other devices that connect to a computer in a home or small business.

Additional information about the state’s new electronics recycling law is available from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s website at www.depweb.state.pa.us.

Information about Waste Management’s mail-order e-cycling services is available at www.thinkgreenfromhome.com.