The Flathead County Landfill is keeping its weight down thanks to a couple of recent recycling events in the valley. Flathead area businesses and residents kept more than 20,000 pounds of electronics out of the district's landfill during the Collectronics event on Memorial Day weekend in Whitefish and a similar event July 15 at Valley Recycling in Kalispell.

About 150 Flathead Valley businesses, schools and individuals dropped off 168 computer monitors, 120 desktop computers, 141 printers, 21 laptops, 204 small peripherals, 26 telephones, 15 word processors/typewriters, 32 cell phones, 20 televisions and more during both events, reports Sandra Boggs, recycling and marketing development specialist for the Montana Department of Environmental Quality.

Event sponsors included The Wave, Montanasky-Cyberport, Citizens for a Better Flathead, and the office of Montana Sen. Dan Weinberg of Whitefish, which requested that DEQ organize electronics recycling events to give Montanans the opportunity to properly dispose of waste electronics.

Along with the sponsors, Boggs also thanks the many individuals who volunteered their time at the events, and the area businesses who contributed food, snacks and bottled water for the volunteers.

The DEQ is working with local groups to organize e-waste collection events across the state to gather data on electronics recycling and find out how the public might like a program to be designed.

"The DEQ wants to establish ongoing sustainable programs to replace these one-time events," says Boggs. "Keeping electronic waste out of our landfills will continue to grow in importance as old televisions are replaced with digital ones and upgrading computers costs less and less."

E-cycling keeps lead, cadmium, mercury, fire retardant treated plastics, and many other hazardous materials out of landfills and prevents potential water contamination in the future.

Boggs says the DEQ staff frequently is asked where consumers can recycle old electronics because they increasingly are recognizing the value of extending the useful life of local landfills by keeping bulky electronics out.

A Spokane-based business, Inland ReTech, recycles 95 percent of everything that is collected at these events, says Boggs.

Many of the electronics items are refurbished and resold.

The business breaks down the rest and ships the plastic and circuit boards to recyclers here in the states. Owner Dennis Ford keeps the materials to be recycled in the United States so they can be processed according to established health and safety standards not present at recycling sources overseas.

Boggs says Ford also is interested in opening an e-cycling business in Missoula in the future.

You can view the EPA's Web site for more details about why electronics are hazardous. Log on to http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/hazwaste/recycle/ecycling/index.htm