Urban Mining Depot is giving old electronics new life.

The e-recycling firm collects out-dated electronics ranging from TVs to cell phones and breaks them down into 22 components for recycling. They are sent to a variety of processors, where the material is eventually made into new electronics.

"It goes back into the industry for tomorrow's electronics," said Paul VanMiddlesworth, co-owner of the 6-month-old company.

The Post Falls company collected five truckloads of old electronics in five hours in the parking lot of Runge's Furniture in Coeur d'Alene on Friday.

VanMiddlesworth said that amount is similar to what is taken from the Bonner County transfer stations each week.

Urban Mining Depot has a contract with Bonner County to take in that area's electronics, and the company is open to talking to Kootenai County about working out a contract.

"We saw a need to take care of the electronics that were piling up at the transfer stations," VanMiddlesworth said.

VanMiddlesworth said the company does not have public dropoff sites. However, it plans to have community collection points quarterly.

E-recycling also abounds at Kootenai County, said Solid Waste Director Roger Saterfiel.

The bulk of dumped technology - televisions, laptops, computers and monitors - are trucked to ECS Refining, a recycling company in Santa Clara, Calif.

All of the items are dismantled there, Saterfiel said, with every material recycled.

"They recycle the plastics, there's a minute amount of gold, other metals, the glass out of the TVs is recycled," he said.

He added that the technology is shredded first, to prevent private information from being stolen off of hard drives.

The county pays for freight service, and an additional 10 cents per pound, Saterfiel added.

"We use the profits from other recyclables to help pay for this," he said, referring to revenue from recycled metal, aluminum, cardboard and newspaper.

The county recycles 473,000 pounds of electronics a year, he said, which costs $68,000.

The county previously sent electronics to a business in Blanchard, Saterfiel added, which took apart the items and sold off the materials.

"He went out of business," Saterfiel said. "Part of the reason is he couldn't find markets that would pay him for that stuff."

That business used to take electronics like stereos and vacuums, Saterfiel added, which now ends up in the landfill.

"People get excited when I say that, because 'Oh my gosh, we're contaminating ground water,'" Saterfiel said. "No, we're not. We have a liner system that's basically three different layers of liners under that landfill, that protects the ground water. It doesn't go anywhere."

Cell phones are donated to nonprofits like St. Vincent de Paul, he said.

The county does charge for drop off of multiple monitors, due to commercial entities dumping truckloads of electronics at a time, he added.

"We really can't afford to do that," he said of the cost to truck out such loads.

Commercial entities are charged $67.70 per ton, plus $15 for each television, or $10 per computer monitor.

Individuals can drop off three TVs or computer monitors for free. After that, it's $15 for each TV, and $10 for each computer monitor.

"What we're trying to do is cover our costs," he said. "We're not really making a profit."