Will County offers options to make electronics recycling easy

     JOLIET-  Will County continues to make the recycling of electronics – banned from the state’s landfills since 2012 – easy for residents.

     Over the past few weeks, the County has entered into a pair of contracts with Vintage Tech Recyclers in Romeoville that are designed to continue offering residents a variety of electronic recycling options.

     The first extends the partnership with local government units to offer 13 permanent drop-off sites throughout the county and continues one-day collection events. Recycling at the permanent sites and one-day events, from which Vintage Tech picks up the electronics, is free.

     The second contract continues the front-door collection, now with a $25 fee per stop effective May 1.

     Will County Executive Larry Walsh said, “We started the permanent collection sites in 2007, grew from four sites to 13 and added the front-door service to give everyone options and make recycling electronics easy.”

     Will County and Vintage Tech Recyclers created the first-of-its-kind in Illinois, manufacturer supported, residential front door electronics recycling program in 2011. 

     Residents embraced the option and Vintage Tech has collected more than 2.4 million pounds of electronics through the program.

     As transportation costs have increased and the value of the materials has dropped, it became clear that those using the front-door program would need to pay some of the cost. The County bid the program to make sure that the service would remain available to all residents at a reasonable rate.

     “We wanted to ensure that the service was provided by a recycler with national certifications so that personal data on computers, printers, cell phones and copiers would be protected,” said Marta Keane, Recycling Program Specialist for the Will County Land Use Department’s Resource Recovery and Energy Division.

     Vintage Tech Recyclers was the successful bidder, offering a price of $25 per home collection to be paid at the time the collection reservation is made.

     Broken, scavenged or any non-whole units will not be accepted as part of the front-door program.  Electronics will only be picked up when located at the front of the home or garage, and will not be picked up if by the curb.

     For a list of permanent sites and their hours, go to www.willcountygreen.com or call (815) 727-8834. If you need front-door collection service, call Vintage Tech Recyclers at (866) 631-1707 or visit www.vintagetechrecyclers.com.

     The next one-day electronics event will be from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 3, at the Hickory Creek Metra parking lot, 9430 Hickory Creek Drive, in Mokena.

     The Will County Land Use Department is led by Curt Paddock and is under the County Executive’s office.