Knee Deep in Old PCs? Recycle Your Electronics at the Meadows Saturday

Are you constantly tripping over the old broken toaster oven in the basement? Is your closet stacked with outdated computer components? This weekend you'll get a great chance to get rid of them, and you won't have drive far.

The City of Lake Saint Louis is holding an electronics and appliance drop-off recycling event for households and businesses at the on Sat., Oct. 15, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.  

Initiated two years ago by the City’s Green Environmental Advisory Committee, this year’s recycling event again will be managed by , Missouri’s largest not-for-profit recycling agency. WITS either reconditions dropped-off items for reuse in the greater St. Louis area or takes them apart for recycling. 

Ed Young, chairperson of the Advisory Committee, said that he is “delighted to work with an agency that advertises that no donated item will end up in a landfill.”

Possible items for recycling include:

• computers, monitors and other computer hardware including cables
• office/business equipment and machinery
• telecommunications equipment including phones and clocks
• televisions and VCR’s
• stereos
• cameras
• audio/video equipment
• data storage devices including CD’s and VHS tapes
• home electronics such as blenders, toasters and irons
• large appliances such as washing machines and dryers, dishwashers, furnaces and hot water heaters
• home medical equipment
• industrial machinery
• lawn mowers, tillers and tools
• air conditioners, refrigerators, humidifiers
• old motors, transformers, electrical equipment, power supplies and car batteries 

"Last year we collected about 35 tons—about three tractor trailer loads—which will not be going to a landfill," Young said.

There is a $5 suggested donation for each computer monitor and laptop, television, large appliance, and all freon-containing devices. All other items may be dropped off free of charge. All payments and donations of reusable items may be tax deductible as WITS is a not-for-profit agency.  

Unacceptable items for this recycling event include tires, wood furniture, other wood products, paint and paint cans, and household and industrial chemicals.

Lake Saint Louis Director of Community Development Steve Schertel said, “This recycling event provides Lake Saint Louis residents and business owners with a low cost opportunity to clean out their house or building of unwanted items in an environmentally-responsible fashion.”