Recycle your electronics safely and securely

April 7, 2015

Got an old TV, dead computer or tangle of mystery cables cluttering your closet?

Bring them to the UNT Health Science Center E-Waste Recycle event. You’ll do a “green” thing and avoid identity theft. Plus, you’ll be entered to win an e-reader.

A professional e-waste recycler will take your stuff between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Thursday, April 23. Just drive up to the intersection of Bunting and Haskell avenues on the UNTHSC campus, and workers will unload and recycle everything, safely and securely.

Throwing e-waste into the regular garbage puts heavy metals and other harmful substances in landfills. So offering this community service is part of the UNTHSC Sustainability Office’s Earth Day observation. The last e-waste recycling event, in 2013, brought in 2.5 tons.

The Office of Sustainability is part of Facilities Management, which also oversees the campus’ recycling of many tons of paper, cardboard, glass, cans and plastic. In addition Facilities Management is promoting sustainability and good resource management by:

• Reducing energy use with more than $8 million worth of energy-saving improvements in partnership with Schneider Electric. The university gets about $800,000 payback annually under a guaranteed performance contract that ensures it recoups its investment.
• Cutting water usage by 36 percent last year. Since 2009, water use has decreased even though the campus has grown.
• Diverting 535,000 plastic bottles from the waste stream. The campus’ 25 water stations fill a 12-ounce reusable container with filtered water in just nine seconds.
• Recycling thousands of pounds of light bulbs, fluorescents and lamps along with 1,410 pounds of batteries since 2012. Also, nearly 400 ink cartridges of one type plus another 2,950 pounds of other cartridges and toners, generating $1,800 in rebates that are plowed back into Sustainability projects.
• Subsidizing yearly transit passes for our employees and students for the past two years, increasing users by 65 percent.

For more information on the e-waste recycle event: Sandy.Bauman@unthsc.edu or 817-735-2451.