With Spring showing up rather early this year, cleaning out the back rooms and garages has become a priority. Among the empty boxes and expired catalogs, you may come upon obsolete or broken electronic devices. If you are skilled with eBay or Craiglist, you may be able to pass on what you want to get rid of and even make a little money. If, however, you are a business, spending valuable time listing equipment that may not sell (or be picked up) isn’t good for the bottom line. What do you do? There is always the temptation to just pitch it in the dumpster, releasing toxic materials into a landfill with direct leakage into groundwater. Sounds rather irresponsible, no? But that option no longer exists in Illinois. This year, Illinois’ Electronic Products Recycling & Reuse Act banned all e-waste from landfills.

So what will Taylor Studios do? We actually have a few options, and so do you, if you live in central Illinois. We like to use Mack’s Twin City Recycling in Urbana for most everything, though they don’t take TVs. Best Buy takes almost everything, but they aim their e-waste recycling at residential customers, limiting the program to three items per day accepted from a household. Staples seems more business-friendly, even if their website doesn’t list what they accept. Another option is Marco Recycling in Champaign (302 South Market Street, Champaign, IL 61820 (217) 352-4707), a division of Mervis Industries. Mervis has also announced plans to build a recycling center on North Cunningham in Urbana, on the site of a former drive-in theater.

Have you had to scramble to find a place to dispose of your e-waste? If you’re outside of Illinois, does your state have e-waste disposal laws?