Recycling Available For Old Electronics

Every Christmas, when people buy more electronic gadgets - they sometimes toss out the old things in the trash. But in Tulsa County, almost anything electronic can be recycled.

These recycling depots across Tulsa County don't have to be just for detergent bottles, cans and milk jugs. Everyone now takes electronic waste for recycling.

"Well basically, anything that you can plug in, we can take here when it's reached the end of its life," said Bobby Schultz, The MET Executive Director.

The old toaster oven and vacuum cleaner, or just a box of wires and other gizmos, it can all be recycled.

"Everybody has a drawer in their home filled with cords they don't know what they go to," Schultz said. "We'll take all those."

The MET's recycling depots take in the e-waste, and from there it's hauled over to a company called Natural Evolution. They get computers and TVs and old stereos by the hundreds, and old batteries and light bulbs.

"All of the circuit boards get recycled, the various metal components, the plastics," said Traci Phillips, Natural Evolution CEO.

All of it gets recycled - some of it dismantled in Tulsa, but most of it just sorted out here and shipped elsewhere.

Besides what's picked up from the MET, people can drop electronics at their front door--from DVRs to Christmas lights. They take most anything.

Pretty much if it's got a circuit board or some metal component, we can recycle it," Phillips said.

Christmas creates a rush for electronics recyclers as people update their old technology.

The newest electronics this year will be the e-waste of the future, and while it often goes in the trash, the MET drop off system is a more responsible option.

"It's really critical for us to recycle our electronics, to harvest as much of that material for reuse as possible," said Phillips.

The MET electronic recycling centers take almost all electronics, like computers, for free.

There is a charge for them to take televisions because they're much more expensive to recycle, but otherwise it's a free service supported by government and contributions to keep electronics out of the landfill.