Bring Your Electronic Recyclables to Work Day

Wait! Don’t toss that old microwave into the trash! Don’t chuck those dead batteries or those busted speakers. There’s a better place for them than the local landfill: Bring them to campus Wednesday, April 20. 

As part of this year’s Earth Day celebration at UMass Chan Medical School, members of the campus community can unload those hard-to-dispose-of electronic items at a free drop-off bin, courtesy of Northeast Material Handling, a Lowell-based company that specializes in processing large, unwanted items. 

Northeast Material Handling “hauls away a variety of items for the Medical School,” said Melissa Lucas, sustainability and energy manager at UMass Chan. “They recycle or resell whole items, or they break them down and recycle or resell any parts that are still viable” like wiring, glass and metals, Lucas noted. 

Since June, UMass Chan has contracted with Northeast Material Handling to recycle large items such as furniture, fixtures and appliances, including refrigerators and freezers, that are no longer needed on campus. 

In the spirit of Earth Day, and to extend the school’s green goals beyond the campus boundaries, UMass Chan has arranged for Northeast Material Handling to be on site April 20 and is inviting the campus community to bring in any and all electronic items listed below. “Recycling programs vary from town to town, and people might not think they can recycle some of the things they have around the house, but they often can,” said Lucas. 

On April 20, Northeast Material Handling will accept: 

Monitors  CPUs  Batteries  Modems  Laptops  Radios  Speakers  Routers  Switches  Wire  Microwave ovens Cell phones  Chargers

Cell phones  Chargers  Battery-operated tools  Medical equipment  Home office printers  Phones  Home office scanners  Fax machines  Towers  Servers  Ballasts  Switch gear  Fire alarm equipment  Printed circuit boards

Please note that any and all fluids must be drained out of the equipment and that the company will not be accepting televisions, toner, or fluorescent light bulbs. 

“Northeast Material Handling has committed to sending as many trucks as we need, so people shouldn’t be shy about bringing it all in,” Lucas said. 

School staff is working on identifying the locations for the bins and trucks and hope to make it as convenient as possible for the community to drop off items.