Getting a new computer or cell phone is awesome. But all too soon, it's outmoded and ready to join old VCRs, dead iPods and Coke-drenched keyboards in some overflowing landfill, where lead, mercury and other heavy metals in broken electronics can leach into the soil and groundwater. Then again, you could dispose of your once beloved Razr phone the responsible way by handing it to professional electronic waste collectors. During the
Midtown and Southtown Electronic Waste Collection Event, in the UMKC parking lot at 51st Street and Oak, turn in cell phones, pagers, computers, keyboards, mice, handheld gaming devices and CD players for free. There are collection fees ranging from $5 for stereos, desktop printers and the like to $25 for a console TV — cash and checks only, please. The event runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Later, the heap of plastic and metal gets transported to Midwest Electronics Recovery in Iowa. See
recyclespot.org/electronics.asp for more information.
— Crystal K. Wiebe
Sat., Nov. 6, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., 2010
