July 22, 2014 (BALTIMORE, MD) — The Baltimore City Department of Public Works (DPW) won a $38,000 grant for its successful, free electronics recycling program, said Director Rudolph S. Chow, P.E.

The grant is from the Maryland Department of the Environment, and was awarded following a competitive grant application process. It costs the DPW more than $200,000 each year to have electronics hauled to appropriate recycling centers.

“The State has recognized the important work we do in encouraging our citizens to take their used electronic items to one of our recycling centers instead of letting them enter the regular waste stream,” said Mr. Chow. “This is one more cost-effective way we work with our citizens to help them Clean Up Baltimore.”
The DPW’s Bureau of Solid Waste operates electronics recycling drop-off services at five locations:

• Northwest Transfer Station, 5030 Reisterstown Road
• Citizens’ Convenience Center, 2840 Sisson Street
• Eastern Convenience Center, 6101 Bowley’s Lane
• Southwestern Convenience Center, 701 Reedbird Avenue
• Quarantine Road Sanitary Landfill, 6100 Quarantine Road

The Convenience Centers are free to Baltimore City residents, regardless of how much material they bring in to deposit, and are open every day except Sunday and holidays. Commercial entities and non-City residents are not allowed to use the Convenience Centers.

Electronic items are a valuable commodity for proper recycling because they contain useful materials that can be reutilized, and have metals and other chemicals that should be separated out of the regular waste stream. The DPW insists that its electronics recycling vendors ensure that electronics are not shipped to Third World dumps, and that they are not brought to American landfills that are, or are proposed to be, on Superfund sites.

Electronic items that may be recycled in Baltimore include:

Batteries, cell phones, computer monitors, copy machines and printers, desktop computers, e-readers, fax machines, gaming consoles, GPS units and radar detectors, laptop computers, microwave ovens, power cables, radios, smoke alarms, stereo equipment, television sets, VCRs and similar devices and accessories.