City of Columbia hosts recycling event for electronics and appliances
COLUMBIA — The Mid-Missouri Solid Waste Management District and the city of Columbia Office of Sustainability hosted an electronics and appliances recycling event Saturday.
Open to all mid-Missouri residents, attendees were encouraged to bring old electronics and appliances for safe recycling and disposal. Attendees were able to drop off items at the parking lot behind the Mizzou softball stadium.
Items like TVs, batteries, refrigerators, CRT motors, discs, VHS tapes, AC units and dehumidifiers require a fee in order to recycled. Other items are free. The Midwest Recycling Center posted a full list of items eligible for donation.
“We put on collections for difficult to handle materials. A couple weeks ago we did tire collection, today we’re doing electronic goods,” said Elise Buchheit, who helped plan and run the event. “Pretty much anything with a cord or battery, these are things that are difficult to find a place to throw away safely. It’s a service to the community — a safe way to get rid of those materials, and they will be recycled or reused if they’re able to be, otherwise they will be stripped for parts and recycled that way.”
Cars were backed up Saturday morning from the parking lot down to the intersection of Tiger Avenue and Stadium Boulevard.
“We’ve been doing these kind of collections for a decade,” Buccheit said. “We had a lot of interest this year. I don’t know if people’s TVs all went out at the same time or if people were doing some summer cleaning.”
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Buccheit told KOMU 8 that one reason for the crowd was the low cost to donate.
“We do subsidize the cost of disposal,” Buccheit said. “There’s options throughout the year at other locations, but TVs are only costing $10 for people to dispose, and a lot of other times they would cost $50 or $60,” Buccheit said.
The MS4 permit, which was issued in 2020, makes sure the city has systems in place to safely manage storm water hazards and reduce the discharge of pollutants.
“This Columbia collection is funded in part through a partnership with the University of Missouri, the city of Columbia and Boone County, so they all chip in to help support this event and provide funding as part of their MS4 storm water permit,” Buchheit said.
The recycling center hosts other donation drives and will continue to do so in the future in collaboration with its sponsors, according to Buccheit.