Southwestern College

The Cowley County Conservation District along with Cowley County K-State Research & Extension, The City of Winfield, Sunflower RC&D, Winfield Correctional Facility, ABCDE, USD #465, and Southwestern College Green Team combined resources to conduct the first of two Cowley County Electronic Waste Recycle Day on April 27, 2010. A second date is planned for August 28 at the Agri-Business building in Arkansas City.

The electronic waste is an ever-growing product, that when recycled, keeps toxins out of landfills, preserves our natural resources, and provides jobs through recycling centers and packaging facilities. In order to conserve natural resources and the energy needed to produce new electronic equipment from virgin resources, electronic equipment can be refurbished, reused, and recycled instead of being landfilled. E-waste contains valuable materials such as gold, silver, copper, steel and plastic. It makes sense to recycle these materials instead of throwing them into our landfills.

The collection site was the Cowley County Fairgrounds from 3pm-7pm on Tuesday, April 27. Items that were accepted included televisions, computers, mice, keyboards, cameras, microwaves, DVD and VCR players, cell phones, MP3 players, just to name a few. A complete list can be found at www.cowleycountyconservationdistrict.com. A total of 1.5 semi-truck trailers worth of electronics were collected to be recycled. Twelve students from Southwestern College volunteered during the afternoon.

The program was free to Cowley County households, government agencies, and educational institutions, but a $1 minimum donation was requested to cover the cost of transportation to the Rice County recycling facility. Businesses were also allowed to bring items, but were assessed a $5 fee for each monitor and television. All items will be secured and electronically cleaned, so by recycling e-waste through our program you are assured there will not be any security issues.

The E-Waste program is funded in part by a grant from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and Rice County Recycling and E-Waste with the support of the Solid Waste Management Reduction Initiative through Sunflower RC&D.