eForce Compliance collaborated with the Weavers Way Environment Committee and Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting Peace and Social Concerns Committee to host an electronic waste collection event as well a community fundraiser on Saturday June 22nd, 2013.

The collection event was held at the Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting House and an incredible 18,461 pounds of electronic waste was collected and recycled. Weavers Way Environment Committee and Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting Peace and Social Concerns Committee successfully raised money to donate to neighborhood environmental projects, community gardens in the Fair Hill section of Philadelphia and E.M.I.R. a support place for families of murder victims.

The e-waste recycling collection event encompasses materials that are difficult to recycle. Included in this waste stream were obsolete electronics like old computers, laptops, DVD players, cell phones, etc. Due to the overwhelming response and enthusiastic participation from Chestnut Hill and Mt. Airy residents, another event will be held in the fall at the same location.

eForce Compliance maintains a zero export and zero landfill policy which assures that all materials collected are recycled in an environmentally friendly manner and has participated in numerous collection events in and around the Philadelphia area. .

(PHILADELPHIA) In recent years, efforts to recycle have grown in popularity, and “going green” is becoming second nature to many people. Effective 2013 The Covered Devices Recycling Act (CDRA) went into effect, prohibiting residents and local businesses with fewer than 50 employees from tossing their devices into landfills. Indeed, many of the devices people are most eager to recycle are computer components. But recycling efforts are now being confronted with a new challenge. What to do with that old TV?

Unfortunately, a large number of CRT monitors and analog TVs remain in homes throughout the surrounding area, because they are items that even professional recycling companies can no longer take. The CRT glass found in these appliances is expensive to recycle due to the lead, phosphor content, and other hazardous materials they contain. Finding a safe and effective way to dispose of CRT has become cost prohibitive and impractical for many recyclers.

As the CDRA was written, manufacturers are required to establish and maintain a plan with professional recyclers to manage the collection, transport, and safe disposal of these devices. A number of manufacturers may utilize out-of-state organizations to help them comply with the many diverse state programs that exist nationwide. As a result, certain recyclers are not included in the recycling plans, despite their long-standing relationships or status within their own communities, and the problem is growing.

One such recycling company feeling the effects of this crisis is Philadelphia-based eForce Compliance, the first dual certified electronic recycler in the Delaware Valley. “With the recent passage of The Covered Devices Act, our services have been in high demand, resulting in increasing attendance from area residents. But we are now faced with a real dilemma since a number of manufacturers will no longer accept CRT glass from us,” said eForce Compliance cofounder, Charles Nygard. “The real losers are residents who have relied on us for years to provide a venue for safe and effective recycling. Yet, efforts to reach out for assistance to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, the legislators who wrote the bill, and other taxpayer-funded agencies, have been unsuccessful,” added Nygard.

eForce will continue to provide their recycling services, but will no longer accept any TVs or CRTs effective June 1, 2013.

(PHILADELPHIA) Imagine a line of tractor trailers the length of nearly 10 football fields loaded with obsolete electronic devices. Now envision a local company taking the effort to collect these devices, which total more than 1,000,000 pounds, and properly recycle them while creating many local, sustainable jobs in the process.

By hosting a series of free electronic recycling collection events in a 5-week period, residents and small businesses in the greater Philadelphia area were given the opportunity to responsibly dispose of obsolete items including computers, televisions and other devices, which in the past, would have been slated for local landfills. Nearly half of waste collected during this initiative was in the form of CRT glass containing high concentrations of lead, phosphors, and other toxic materials. “In addition to promoting a cleaner environment, recycling creates a heightened awareness of the potential hazards inherent in improper waste disposal,” said eForce Cofounder, Charles Nygard.

“With the recent passage of The Covered Devices Act, our services have been in high demand, resulting in increasing attendance from area residents who can no longer put electronics curbside with their other trash,” said Nygard.

eForce maintains an active role in developing outreach programs to educate the public about the necessity of responsible recycling. The company has also partnered with the EPA to become the first Sustainability Partnership Program Member in the region. Last year eForce Compliance was awarded the William M Heehan Markets Development Award for its commitment to developing market opportunities for recycled-content materials in Pennsylvania.

eForce Compliance is the first dual certified electronic recycler in the Delaware Valley, and provides a full staff of professional e-waste experts to handle and transport all material collected, and in the process creates sustainable green jobs.

Having trouble getting rid of your old TV or CRT monitor? It may be getting more difficult to dispose of these electronics in the very near future. eForce Compliance, metro-Philadelphia's largest consumer electronic recycling service provider, will be discontinuing the acceptance of TVs and CRTs effective April 6, 2013. The move will directly affect the nearly 6,000,000 residents located within their service area. Several other recyclers in Pennsylvania have also stopped providing recycling services of TVs and CRTs, and a nationwide problem seems to be looming as evidenced by a recent article in the New York Times.

Free recycling of TVs, computers and computer related items such as keyboards, mice, printers and screens is the main focus of The Covered Device Recycling Act, enacted in 2012, and is overseen by the Department of Environmental Protection in Pennsylvania. As part of the Act, a landfill ban on electronic devices went into effect on January 24, 2013. The Act prohibits residents and small businesses with fewer than 50 employees from disposing of their electronic devices in landfills covered under the Act. Manufacturers are held responsible for covering the costs of managing the recycling of covered devices through contracts with recyclers who perform collection and processing services, and who also provide a venue for the recycler to ship back TVs and CRTs to one of the manufacturers’ contracted processors.

“Our collection event services have been in high demand, especially since many county sponsored events have lines of residents waiting for over an hour, while our wait time averages less than 5 minutes. The growth of these events has allowed us to hire 20 new employees over the last 18 months, and we anticipated an equal amount of new hires in 2013,” said Charles Nygard, co-founder of eForce Compliance, who added, “We will be shifting from job creation to job subtraction real soon.”

Ironically, eForce was awarded the William M. Heenan Markets Development Award by the Pennsylvania Recycling Markets in October 2012 for their innovations in the electronic recycling industry, most notably for their provision of compliant consumer collection events throughout the Philadelphia region. Now they are faced with the advent of scaling back, or even eliminating these popular events.

Manufacturers, who bear the responsibility of managing recycling efforts in states that mandate electronic recycling, typically employ the use of out-of-state organizations to manage the many diverse state programs nationwide. Unfortunately, certain recyclers are not included in the recycling plans, regardless of their long-established relationships or status within their own communities.

“We have contacted every possible resource to obtain a contract and have been told repeatedly, from the few manufacturers who even return our repeated calls, that our services are not needed for 2013. The real losers are residents and those employees who will be laid off because of our exclusion from the program. Our efforts to reach out for assistance to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, the legislators who wrote the bill, and other taxpayer-funded agencies, have been fruitless,” said Nygard.

eForce plans to continue to provide their collection events but will no longer accept any TVs or CRTs effective April 6, 2013.

Springfield, PA. – In response to Pennsylvania’s new Covered Device Recycling Act, Springfield Township is proud to offer residents a permanent Electronic Waste Collection Program at the Springfield Public Works Yard at 1258 Church Road, in Springfield, PA. Residents wishing to dispose of electronics may bring them to the Public Works Yard on weekdays between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. All types of electronics will be accepted including TVs, computers, monitors, printers, air conditioners, computer accessories, and small household appliances.

All materials collected will be recycled in an environmentally friendly manner and, to ensure security, ALL media data that are collected are destroyed. This FREE service is provided by Springfield Township. The materials collected will be processed by eForce Compliance, the first dual certified electronic recycler in the Delaware Valley. eForce Compliance maintains a zero landfill policy and zero export of hazardous e-waste to developing countries. In addition, eForce Compliance provides a full staff of professional e-waste experts to handle and transport all collected items and, in the process, creates sustainable green jobs.

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The everyday electronic devices that have become an essential part of our daily lives have a little secret. Nearly all electronic devices contain potentially hazardous heavy metals that make landfilling undesirable and potentially dangerous to the environment.

Fortunately, many states recognize that electronics must be recycled properly and are banning common disposal of obsolete electronics. Effective today in Pennsylvania, The Covered Device Act goes into full effect and all residents must now responsibly recycle their old computers, printers, monitors, and accessories as they can no longer be thrown in landfills. As part of the new Act, manufacturers are responsible for providing consumers with convenient drop-off locations, and ensure that certified electronic recycling companies perform all recycling.

eForce Compliance, a dual certified electronic recycling company with a 100,000 square foot operation in Philadelphia, provides an extensive network of special collection events in the metro-Philadelphia area to help residents responsibly recycle electronics. eForce hosts over 60 localized collection events throughout the year in partnership with municipalities, non-profit groups, and civic associations in Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs. In 2012 alone eForce recycled over 3,000,000 pounds of electronics through their collection programs and expects to nearly double that amount in 2013.

eForce provides communities with the most comprehensive collection services in the industry staffed with trained professionals to accept “anything with a plug,” except large appliances, at their collection events, and also ensures that all sensitive data are wiped or destroyed at their facility. “Our collection events have provided residents in the Greater Delaware Valley with a safe and efficient means to responsibly recycle obsolete electronic devices,” said Jay Segal, President of eForce. “What is not seen from these programs is the creation of local, sustainable jobs. Since a majority of our materials are processed within 10 miles of our facility, the impact on the local community is significant, and results in even more job creation by our vendors who need to hire more staff to accommodate the extra volume of material sent to their facilities,” added Segal.

As the first electronic recycler to become certified to the e-Steward, R2, and ISO 14001 standards, eForce has been active in outreach programs to educate the public about the necessity of responsible recycling and has partnered with the EPA to become the first Sustainability Partnership Program Member in the region. eForce was also awarded the inaugural William M. Heenan Markets Development Award for its innovation and commitment to developing new market opportunities for recycled-content materials in Pennsylvania.