Uploaded to Flickr by moria
We’ve reduced our trash output through composting and learned how to properly dispose of our oversized trash using city services, but what to do with items we can’t readily recycle and that we know are toxic for the planet? DC limits curbside recycling to certain materials, but that doesn’t mean we have to trash our old or broken electronics, light bulbs, and batteries. Keep these items and more out of landfills (and thus preventing the chemicals inside them from getting into the air and water) with these local e-cycling options.
Frager’s Hardware (1115 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE), our local one-stop home improvement store, accepts rechargeable batteries as well as mercury-switch thermostats. Have you been thinking of installing a programmable, digital thermostat before the summer heat arrives? Recycle the old unit to keep mercury from leaching into groundwater at a landfill. Frager’s will soon also start accepting unbroken compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs for recycling – another potential source of mercury, albeit a lesser evil than the old incandescent bulbs.
Rechargeable batteries can also be dropped off at Radio Shack (717 D Street, SE) for recycling.
Old cell phones are often collected by nonprofits for reuse by those who may need a phone but cannot afford one. Next time you upgrade your mobile, drop off your old phone at Results Gym (315 G Street, SE) or at many Verizon Wireless stores, including the one at Union Station.
A short jaunt from the Hill can bring you to Ace Hardware at the City Vista development at 1055 5th Street, NW. This location currently accepts disposable batteries as well as fluorescent bulbs for recycling. The Home Depot has a nationwide recycling program for compact fluorescent bulbs as well, including the location at Rhode Island Avenue, NE.
For larger electronics such as computers, televisions, and stereos, you can haul them to the Fort Totten Transfer Station or wait for the DC Department of the Environment to set up e-cycling collection days as they have done in the past, often in the fall and located in neighborhoods around the city. The local offices of the EPA have also been known to sponsor e-cycling events.
If you know of other Hill locations accepting electronics and batteries, please feel free to include them as comments to this post.
