Sunnking Electronics Recycling has provided a number of events for Western New Yorkers to safely dispose of their unused electronics. But that could change soon.
The company has not committed to holding a collection event in 2023 because new statewide recycling regulations take effect in the new year. They plan to soon stop charging residents to recycle their electronics.
Sunnking marketing director Robert Burns said starting January 1, manufacturers will pay recycling facilities directly to collect materials.
In Niagara County, Sun King worked with community partners to set up recycling sites in the towns of Niagara, Wheatfield, Cumbria, Porter, Pendleton, Wilson and Lockport. We held a collection event at a fashion outlet mall and collected approximately £214,000 of recycled electronics. The company itself handles £75,000 per day and £25 million per year in electronics.
“For us, it’s things with plugs and circuit boards,” Burns said, Sunking will transform items like televisions, treadmills, phones, laptops, security cameras and video game controllers into refrigerators. Accepted rather than large appliances. From there, Sunking sees if the item can be reused or disassembled and the raw materials sent to refineries to create new devices. We also make sure people’s data is safe by erasing and destroying hard drives.
These collection events have been going on for ten years as a way to get more material. Over time, they’ve become bigger events that people look forward to, people bring in a month’s worth of electronics, and Sunking limits the amount you can register to 2,000. Mr. Burns described it as a public service rather than a money-maker for recyclers.
“The state has long emphasized promoting recycling at the residential level. “We still get paid. It’s just a restructuring of how money gets to us,” Burns said. “At the end of the day, it’s a good thing.”
This will also increase the responsibility of manufacturers. Burns says we have to think twice about how we manufacture devices and how we make it easier to take them apart and extract resources.
With this change, Sunnking has made drop-offs free on all sites starting November 1st, so you have two months to let us know about the change. We already have hundreds of drop-off sites in western New York and are looking to open more.
“We will be watching closely how people recycle in the coming months,” Barnes said.
