Mainly clear. Low around 45F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph..

Mainly clear. Low around 45F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph.

DANVILLE – The Vermilion County Health Department will have a free electronics-collection event from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 15 in the north parking lot of Danville Area Community College, 2000 E. Main St., Danville, for all county residents.

Residents are encouraged to bring their broken, obsolete or unwanted televisions, monitors and other electronic items to the collection events to be recycled.

The Oct. 15 Vermilion County event is jointly sponsored by Danville Area Community College, the Vermilion County Health Department and Keep Vermilion County Beautiful, and is open to any county resident, including city of Danville residents. Proof of residency of those taking part in the collection will be checked. Vermilion County residents will be limited to a maximum combination of four televisions or computer monitors at the collection.

“We are happy to work with residents to properly recycle these types of electronics in an environmentally safe and responsible manner,” said Jana Messmore, the Vermilion County Health Department’s director of environmental health. “By doing so, many materials will be reused in the manufacturing of new products, and potentially harmful chemicals will be diverted from landfills.”

Terri Cummings, the dean of Business and Technology at DACC, said the college was looking to host a special electronics-collection event, and that college officials were eager to be involved.

“Encouraging environmental sustainability is a goal of the college, and we are happy to be part of the October event,” Cummings said.

Keep Vermilion County Beautiful also is involved in the planning of the events and will have representatives at the collection events accepting donations for future recycling and beautification events.

“These events are great opportunities to remove unwanted electronic items from storage and to have them processed or recycled,” said Brenda Adams, KVBC executive director.

The focus of the event is to collect CRT or flat screen televisions, CRT or flat screen monitors, and related electronic items.

Items such as cable boxes, satellite dishes, cell phones, computers, computer peripherals (keyboards and mice), printers, copiers, DVD players, fax machines, gaming consoles, laptops, PDAs, scanners, VCRs, wires, cameras, clocks, radios, vacuum cleaners and fans will be accepted, but most of those items also can be taken to local recyclers during their regular business hours.

The collection will not accept household batteries, paint, motor oil, or large appliances.

According to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, recyclers recovered more than 12.3 million pounds of electronic material in Illinois last year.

Some electronics can contain toxic materials such as lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium and beryllium that must be properly managed to prevent soil and groundwater contamination. But obsolete electronic products also can contain valuable materials that can be recycled for reuse such as copper, gold and circuit chips.

It is illegal in Illinois for electronic products such as televisions, computers, monitors, DVD players, fax machines and MP3 players to be disposed of in landfills.

“Even though slim, lightweight flat-screen televisions and monitors started appearing in the mid-2000s, we still receive lots of large, heavy CRT televisions at our collection events,” said Public Health Administrator Douglas Toole.

Toole can be reached at 217-431-2662, ext. 243 for more information about the county event.

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