Last updated April 12, 2019
While the new statewide law in the US, which forces manufacturers to accept the responsibility for the recycling of old cell phones and other electrical items, may have caught some places on the hop when it became official on the first of this month, Clinton County is not one of them. The area has been a pioneer in the field for several years already.
“Clinton County and Casella (Waste Management Systems) have always been on the upward edge, as far as recycling goes,” says the County Landfill’s general manager, Craig Squier. “We started a voluntary electronic recycling program over four years ago, and the county made it unlawful two years ago to knowingly place electronic devices in the landfill. All of that was a precursor to the state law.”
Prior to the first of this month, residents had to pay the landfill to accept their used cell phones and other electrical goods for recycling, whereas now the service is free and not just to local residents but also to businesses, schools and government agencies. “The recycling costs will be borne by the manufacturer,” Squier explains. With the big electronic manufacturers in the state having joined forces to collect and dispose of old cell phones and all their other electrical devices, Squier says it will now make the whole process of recycling much easier for ordinary consumers. “This should encourage more voluntary recycling,” he believes. “It’s the right thing to do. We don’t want electronics up in the landfill.”