SNOW HILL – In an effort to save money, Worcester County will no longer be recycling televisions and computer monitors.
The Worcester County Commissioners this week approved a request from John Tustin, director of Worcester County Public Works, to begin landfilling televisions and monitors. Tustin said the change would save the county at least $40,000 a year.
“The cost savings is there,” he said.
According to Tustin, as the Worcester County Solid Waste Advisory Board was reviewing the coming year’s budget, one of the recommendations its members made was to stop recycling TVs and monitors. The committee said the cost of recycling them, at 27.5 cents per pound, was too expensive.
“Some of these TVs are pretty big and pretty heavy,” Tustin said.
While the recommendation was actually for the coming year, Tustin said that because it would save the county money he wanted to see the change implemented now.
“We want to be proactive and start this program immediately,” he said.
Tustin told the commissioners the county had the landfill space to accommodate the electronic devices and that the county would still meet the level of recycling required by the state with the change.
He said there would be no environmental issues associated with putting the televisions and monitors in the county landfill. He added that his department had researched the practice and found that a number of other counties in the state were already landfilling TVs and monitors.
