NYC expands its e-waste recycling program

The city has announced that it will grow its pilot curbside e-waste program into a permanent recycling endeavor across four boroughs. Started on Staten Island in October 2016, the program has already collected over 400,000 pounds of electronic waste that could have otherwise been filtered into landfills.

“It’s so important to our zero waste goals to recycle everything we can, including electronics—but we also need to make it easier for our residents to do so, and that’s what this program is all about,” Mayor de Blasio said in a statement announcing the program’s expansion.

As a part of that expansion, curbside e-waste recycling will become permanent on Staten Island, and will expand into the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens over the next three years. The expansion will roll out first in North Brooklyn, in most borough neighborhoods from Boerum Hill and north, starting this fall.

To participate in the recycling program, residents of one- to nine- apartment buildings must make an appointment through 311 or through the city’s website. From there residents choose an appointment slot and indicate how many items up to 20 they’d like to recycle. Items for recycling must be placed curbside in order to be collected. E-waste recycling has been available in larger apartment buildings with ten units or more since 2013.

In the immediate future, the easiest way to properly dispose of e-waste is to turn it in to participating retailers like Best Buy and Staples, or to programs like GrowNYC or the Lower East Side Ecology Center. Recycling your e-waste is just one way to be a better New Yorker. For 49 more suggestions, head this way.

• Ways to make change in NYC and get involved [Curbed]