We collect all kinds of electronic waste (e-waste) on campus from students, faculty and staff at our e-waste stations located in Cro, Shain and Cummings. Below are the ways you can help us make sure our e-waste recycling program is effective.
Batteries are one of the more challenging items for us to recycle on campus. Legally, non-alkaline batteries must be recycled and must not be placed into trash cans on campus or at your home. This includes rechargeable batteries of any kind, button batteries, and batteries made of specific chemicals like lithium, lead-acid, nickel-cadmium (Ni-Cd or NiCad), nickel metal hydride (Ni-MH) and nickel-zinc (Ni-Zn).
Recycling any battery on campus costs the college money and time. Faculty and staff should make all possible effort to recycle their personal batteries through your town's household hazardous waste program or retail take-back programs.
If you do bring non-alkaline batteries to campus for recycling, you must tape the terminals before depositing them into an e-waste station (see photo for example). This is to prevent potential fire and explosion from batteries that aren't fully discharged. It is required by our recycling partner. When you deposit batteries un-taped into our stations a student worker has to handle, sort and tape the batteries for recycling. This takes hours for the volume of batteries we collect. Please help us make our recycling program more efficient by doing this work at home.
While alkaline batteries (and similar zinc-carbon batteries) can be placed into your regular household trash, we do collect them for recycling on campus and some valuable materials can be recovered from them.
Recycling any battery on campus costs the college money and time. Faculty and staff should make all possible effort to recycle their personal batteries through your town's household hazardous waste program or retail take-back programs.
We accept all types of desktop printer ink and toner cartridges for recycling at our e-waste stations. Kyocera toner cartridges from the College MFD fleet should be returned directly to the Print Center in Cro for recycling.
Faculty and staff should make all possible effort to recycle their personal ink and toner cartridges through their town's household hazardous waste programs or retail take-back programs.
CFLs contain mercury, so they must not be placed into trash cans on campus or at your home. Look for a Hg label on the base of the bulb if you aren't sure if it is a CFL. They typically have a "swirl" shape, but they can be enclosed in an outer layer or have straight tubes. If possible, bag your bulbs in case they are broken inside the e-waste station.
Small electronics include things like cell phones, laptops and tablets, cables and even electronic key fobs. These items typically have valuable metal inside and many must be recycled. Do not place electronics into the trash on campus or at your home.