MARYSVILLE — E-Waste’s first electronics recycling collection drive in Marysville went so well that both the Lynnwood company and the Marysville company that hosted it expressed the desire to team up again.
“We’re been doing these ‘e-cycles’ throughout Snohomish County and Seattle for the past three years, but never before in Marysville,” said Craig Randall, a consultant on environmental issues for the Lynnwood-based E-Waste, as he segregated different types of old, broken or used electronics into different stacks outside of Marysville’s Pacific Power Batteries on March 12. “We hope to do it again soon.”
“It gives us a chance to help offer a good service from a good company,” agreed Chris Canavan, a battery salesman for Pacific Power Batteries at 720 Cedar Ave.
Randall and fellow E-Waste employee Jason Chapman accepted TVs, computers, monitors, laptops and cell phones for free, while requesting a small recycling fee to accept other electronics. Near the end of the five-hour event, Randall estimated that E-Waste had received close to 8,000 pounds of surplus electronics equipment, which E-Waste President Mary Reading promised would be disposed of without waste or harm to the environment.
“We filled up two truckloads today,” Reading said on March 12. “It seems like Marysville hasn’t had as many of these types of round-ups, so we wanted to let everyone know we’re here, we’re certified and we recycle these materials right.”
Although E-Waste is unable to accept materials such as microwaves that are 10 years or older, Reading and her employees made sure to refer those with such gear to facilities that would accept their equipment. Once all the gear that’s collected during these “e-cycle” events is transported to E-Waste’s facility, it’s sorted and disassembled entirely by human employees.
“We don’t use machines for that,” said Reading, who employs four full-time workers and uses local temp agencies to fill out the rest of her crew. “I prefer to give real people real jobs. I don’t ship these materials out of country, either. It usually gets sent within Washington or Oregon. The cell phones we receive go to Domestic Violence Services of Snohomish County.”
