New regulation will remove fees to Clifton Park for ongoing electronics recycling program

Article Audio:

Share on Facebook

Save

CLIFTON PARK — While the town of Clifton Park has offered free electronics recycling to its residents for years, a new regulation will remove the associated fees to the town.

The town will no longer be charged for providing the electronics recycling service to the residents, town supervisor Phil Barrett explained.

“We remain committed to offering a convenient location for Clifton Park residents to drop off their electronics,” Barrett said. “We have been doing it for a number of years, and we wanted to continue to offer that important service.”

The structure of recycling old electronics will be changing Jan. 1, statewide, Barrett explained. The main difference is that there will no longer be any money exchanged, and the town will no longer be charged for providing the service, he said.

The town board approved a contract in 2022 with EWASTE+ to handle the collection of electronics at the permanent recycling site at the town’s Transfer Station at a cost of 35 cents per pound. The town had facilitated a contract for electronics recycling with EWASTE+, formally known as Regional Computer Recycling & Recovery since 2015. Under the new regulations there would be no cost to the town; instead when electronics are purchased in the state, there is a fee associated with the purchase.

“We’ve always had an RFP that we’ve presented for this service, when we first offered the service years ago, it was very competitive, because there were more players in the market,” Barrett said. “That has changed dramatically, so there are less companies that are in the business of collecting electronics.”

The new system is structured similarly to how residents can properly dispose of paints and stains for recycling. When anyone purchases paint at the retail level, there is a cost included in the purchase which covers the cost of it to be properly recycled. Beginning Jan. 1 throughout the state a similar charge will be included on electronics at the time they are purchased.

“You pay an extra charge when you purchase a new electronic device, like a television for instance,” Barrett said. “That money is allocated towards the cost of collecting and disposing of old electronics.”

The transfer station has a large container for recycling electronic devices, Barrett explained. A transfer station permit is not required to be able to recycle electronics.

| Everything Clifton Park-Halfmoon | Saratoga County | All Local News |