KOCB's e-waste collection considered successful

Keep Orange county Beautiful held its second Electronic Waste Collection Day last weekend in front of the Sears Hometown Store in Orange.

Once again, it was a giant success. The collection effort filled a 50-foot semi-trailer with televisions, computers and other electronic waste as well as a 30-foot dumpster with electric appliances.

Thanks go out to the community for bringing their old electronic (and electric) toys, computers and appliances for recycling. KOCB contracted with Waste Management Inc. to not only collect the materials but also to separate and recycle it. Nothing collected will go into a landfill or pollute the ground water. Everything is recycled.

Thanks go to the KOCB Board members who took time on a sunny Saturday to work the event. Mike Trahan from West Orange, TW Permenter and Harry Vine from Pinehurst, Donna Scales from Bridge City and Noelle Jordan from Orange. And special thanks to Sheldon from Waste Management who helped the public unload the materials from their cars and trucks, and worked the fork lift to load it into boxes, the container and the semi-trailer.

J David Derosier, Chairman of KOCB, said, “The costs involved in removing Freon from refers and A/C units, let alone finding someone to do it, often make it prohibitive for people to dispose of these units properly. KOCB pays for Freon removal making it much easier to dispose for recycling.

"In many cases it can be almost impossible to dispose of broken TVs and computer monitors properly. With funding from Southeast Texas Resource Conservation & Development (STRC&D), our E-Waste collection and recycling is done at no cost to the public.”

Donna Scales, a Director of STRC&D and also on KOCB’s Board said, “It was wonderful to see the community response to this project and to hear the good words from the public. RC&D is so pleased to be able to fund these environmental efforts and to Keep Orange County Beautiful.”

Extra thanks were extended to the Greater Orange Area Chamber of Commerce who helped get the word out to its members, contributing greatly to the event’s success.