NOBLESVILLE — Now that the holidays are finished, you may have a collection of electronics piling up at home, especially if you were gifted a new television, laptop, or phone.
It's important to keep unwanted electronics out of landfills, as many of these items contain hazardous materials.
Indiana Household Hazardous Waste Task Force wants to help you find a local program to recycle your old, broken, or unwanted electronics.
"Our Household Hazardous Waste Centers exist because there's a lot of things that we produce in society that either have value or have hazard," HHW Task Force President Leslie Taljaard said. "Electronics may have some valuable metals in them, but they might also have some hazardous materials in them like lead or mercury."
Taking your items to an HHW facility ensures items are disposed of safely, and many pieces of your electronics can be reused.
In 2024 alone, the Hamilton County HHW collected around 400,000 pounds of electronics. This facility is only open to residents of Hamilton County, but other parts of the state have similar facilities.
"A lot of counties have a physical Household Hazardous Waste center, or they do events," Taljaard said.
She recommends to visit the Indiana HHW website to find your local program. The website has other benefits.
"Find out where your district is, what they accept, if they do events, [and] when those events are," Taljaard said.
The list of accepted items is important, so you can find out if you can take all or some of your electronics.
While some HHW facilities are open multiple days a week, others are open only for specific events.
Taljaard recommends visiting an e-waste vendor if you don't want to wait until a recycling event to drop off your items.
One of these electronic waste companies is Technology Recyclers in Indianapolis.
Here, you can also drop off your electronics. It's similar to dropping them off at a HHW facility. This is just the start of the recycling process.
"We do the destruction process, where we're shredding and then separating those materials," Dale Needleman said. "We take off those little pieces and sell off aluminum, steel, and plastic."
The shredded commodities are sent to manufacturers to be recycled and reused.
Needleman says winter is generally a slower season for his company, but not around the holidays.
"This week specifically it picks up from residential drop-offs because of people who got new things for Christmas and want all of those old items out of their house," he said.
In Indiana, it is estimated that 1.2 million electronics are thrown away each year.
"I think we can be smarter about it," Needleman explained. "Let's do the right thing with it. Recycle it, save the Earth, save your data, and create jobs."
Needleman went on to say that many people are hesitant to recycle their devices because they are afraid their personal information or data will be compromised.
When your electronics are destroyed here, the hard drives are also shredded, which means any secure information you had on the device will be completely inaccessible.
Whether you recycle electronics at a single-day event through your county, a local Household Hazardous Waste facility, or an electronic waste vendor, both Taljaard and Needleman say you are doing your part to help the planet.
"We believe in saving the earth and people in it," Needleman concluded.
