By Kevin Lavery, KWMU
St. Louis, MO. – A new program designed to cut down on pollution from discarded electronics gets underway Tuesday.
Under the "E-Cycle St. Louis" program, people can take unwanted electronics to one of 10 drop-off sites in St. Louis city and county, Jefferson County and St. Charles County.
The items will then be recycled. Program coordinator Laura Yates says about 40 percent of the heavy metals that contaminate landfills in the U-S come from discarded electronics:
"The electronics really don't need to go to a landfill in the first place," Yates said. "Reusing and recycle electronics creates less pollution and energy consumption as opposed to extracting more natural resources from our environment."
Yates says any device with a plug or batteries can be recycled. Some items may require a small disposal fee.