With the cost of electronics recycling rising, Best Buy has decided to stop accepting televisions and computer monitors at its Pennsylvania stores.
The electronics retailer, which had accepted monitors and used televisions up to a certain size for free, was one of the few options for many Pennsylvania consumers. Falling oil and recycled metal prices have helped drive many recyclers out of the business.
The decision, prompted by a state law that makes it illegal to dispose of many electronics in landfills but also forbids retailers to charge consumers to recycle the products, means state residents have fewer options to legally dispose of old televisions.
Outside of Pennsylvania and Illinois, the retailer is still accepting TVs, but it’s charging $25.
Best Buy was losing money on the program, wrote Laura Bishop, the company’s vice president of public affairs and sustainability in a post on the company’s website.
“E-waste volume is rising, commodity prices are falling and global outlets for recycled glass, a key component of TVs and monitors, have dramatically declined,” she wrote. “More and more cities and counties have cut their recycling programs for budgetary reasons, limiting consumer options even further.”
The company can’t be an area’s only electronics recycling option, she said.
“We are particularly disappointed that we can no longer help our customers in Illinois and Pennsylvania with TV and monitor recycling simply because these state laws restrict retailers from operating recycling programs where nominal fees are charged to help offset rising costs,” she wrote.
The law, the Pennsylvania Covered Device Recycling Act, was passed in 2010.
It requires manufacturers of the devices provide for the collection, transportation and recycling of these devices by establishing one-day events, permanent collection programs or mail-back programs for consumers at no cost.
State officials acknowledge there are problems with the act and that changes are needed .
“After almost four years of implementation, the CDRA has not stimulated a dependable statewide infrastructure to ensure local governments, collectors, and recyclers are able to operate and provide recycling services on a continuing basis,” the Department of Environmental Protection reported last year.
The DEP is looking for a legislative fix for the recycling law, said spokesman Neil Shader, but that is likely a way off. The agency maintains a list of recycling centers and the items they accept on its website.
Best Buy is considered a manufacturer under the law. It’s required to recycle a certain weight of electronics based on previous years’ sales, at no cost to consumers, but the law doesn’t require the recycling of particular items such as televisions.
Lehigh Valley area residents still have a few options if they are willing to pay for their TVs to be recycled. They include recycling operations run by AERC Recycling Solutions and GER Solutions in Allentown. Salvation Army thrift stores accept some working televisions.
TVs must be brought during business hours and cannot be dumped at those locations. Dumping has become a growing problem as consumers’ options begin to dry up, GER Solutions owner Johnny Johnson said. Many recyclers, including GER, have surveillance cameras in place as a deterrent, but he said he has seen TVs dumped on the side of the road.
“That’s precisely one of the things we want to be avoiding,” the DEP’s Shader said.
Johnson said he’s not sure what Pennsylvania could do to fix its recycling law, but he said California has an interesting system in which the cost of recycling an electronic device is built into its price at purchase, allowing reimbursement of recyclers.
The DEP is only starting to speak with lawmakers about how to fix things here, Shader said.
Allentown residents can take their televisions to the city’s recycling center on the first and third Saturday of each month between April and November.
Where to dispose of used electronics
* AERC Recycling Solutions:
2591 Mitchell Ave., Allentown, 610-797-7608; and 2330 Southwest 26th St., Allentown, 610-433-4011. Fee applies
* GER Solutions:
795 Roble Road, Hanover Township, Lehigh County, 484-866-0927. Fee applies
* Other options: Best Buy (no TVs or monitors), Staples (no TVs or monitors).
* For used but functional devices: Goodwill (No TVs or monitors) and Salvation Army thrift stores. Call ahead for details of what items each entity is willing to accept.
Source: Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
