Grant Funding No Longer Available For GC Electronics Recycling Prog.

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Aug. 5, 2010

Garrett County government may need to explore alternative methods of operation to keep its popular electronics recycling program going next fiscal year, county recycling coordinator Kim Madigan told the county commissioners during a progress report on Tuesday. The county has conducted the program for three years.

To help defray costs, the Maryland Department of the Environment has provided the county's Solid Waste and Recycling Division with two grants totaling $24,656.

Last fiscal year (July 1, 2009, to June 30, 2010) the county received $16,074 to expand the program. The division collected 75 tons of electronics during that period.

"The program had become so successful, we wanted to add an additional site for collection of materials," the coordinator said. "We were already collecting at the Weber and Bumble Bee sites and wanted to add the Grantsville site as well."

The county used $4,250 of last year's grant on safety equipment – hydraulic lifts, straps, and ramps – to help site attendants manage the electronics, and the remaining was spent on hauling, processing, and collecting materials (container rentals).

Because recycling electronics has become so popular locally, the grant funding ran out quickly, and it is now costing the county money to keep the program going.

"In January, we realized the program would not make it through June 30," the coordinator said. "We weighed our options of either shutting down a site or two, or closing the program early. But in the end, we were fortunate to have an extremely generous offer made by our electronics processor, PC Renewal (Morgantown, W.Va.), to accept all of the materials free of charge for the duration of the grant period."

This allowed the program to continue without limitations. What also helped this year, as in the previous years, was that Solid Waste and Recycling provided additional funds.

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