by Glenn Hasek
September 01, 2011 04:42
If you own or operate a lodging establishment in New York, you need to pay attention to the Electronic Equipment Recycling and Reuse Act. Signed into law last year, it will go into effect on January 1, 2012. In January all facilities in New York will be required to recycle their electronic waste. The law includes manufacturer take-back provisions that qualify small businesses with less than 50 full-time employees, or nonprofits with less than 75 full-time employees, to recycle their e-waste for free. Some of the electronic devices covered under the new law include: computers, televisions (as well as cathode ray tubes), small scale servers, computer peripherals, monitors, electronic keyboards, electronic mice or similar pointing devices, facsimile machines, document scanners, and printers.
New York's Department of Environmental Conservation includes information about the new law on its website. According to the law, manufacturers must provide free and convenient collection to New York State consumers. Manufacturers may use a variety of collection methods, which means there might not be a physical collection location in your community. Any of the following collection methods may be used: mail or ship back return programs; fixed acceptance locations such as retail stores, sales outlets, not-for-profit organizations, or municipalities which have agreed to provide facilities for the collection of electronic waste; community collection events; and any combination of these or other acceptance methods which effectively provide for the acceptance of electronic waste for recycling or reuse through means that are available and reasonably convenient to consumers in the state.
As mentioned earlier, those businesses with fewer than 50 employees may be able to recycle electronic waste at no cost but those with more than 50 employees may be assessed a charge by manufacturers for recycling.
One important thing to keep in mind when recycling computers: erase all personal and confidential data before sending them for recycling or reuse. Reformatting your hard drive or deleting files does not destroy your data. Manufacturers must provide information on their public education websites on how consumers can destroy the data contained in their electronic waste.
