Law to ban kicking electronics to the curb

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By ABC11

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

RALEIGH If you have an old tube TV at your house that you plan to replace or outdated computer parts gathering dust, time's running out if you're used to placing them on the curb for solid waste pickup or hauling them to the local landfill.

Electronics are being banned from landfills across the state starting Friday.

"We get quite a bit. We get enough that if we continue taking them, it'll be hazardous to the environment," said Donald Long with Durham Waste Management. "We can take it. We just can't discard it in a landfill. So therefore we have to collect it separately."

However, the new law is leaving residents wondering what to do.

"That's good information to know, but what exactly are we supposed to do with them," resident Fred Cooley said.

Businesses like Best Buy have been accepting discarded electronics and will continue to do so even after the state wide landfill ban.

The company charges $10 for TVs and monitors, but gives customers a $10 gift card when they bring those old parts into a store.

"Oh, that sounds like more fun than bringing them (to the landfill), I'll take that any day," Cooley said.

For more information about disposing electronics, visit the North Carolina Division of Waste Management's website at www.portal.ncdenr.org.