{"id":11202,"date":"2012-10-25T17:27:00","date_gmt":"2012-10-26T03:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=11202"},"modified":"2021-02-10T13:23:54","modified_gmt":"2021-02-10T23:23:54","slug":"uhs-ewaste-event-recycles-electronics-safely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2012\/10\/25\/uhs-ewaste-event-recycles-electronics-safely\/","title":{"rendered":"<abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr>&#8217;s eWaste event recycles electronics safely"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"676\" height=\"380\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Mfrm_x0yz70?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0\" title=\"YouTube video player\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>The University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/its\/\">Information Technology Services<\/a> is responsible for keeping <abbr>UH<\/abbr>&#8217;s computer network up-to-date and up-and-running. But once every two years, ITS sets its sites on old electronic devices like computers and TVs by holding a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/ewaste\/\">statewide electronic waste (e-waste) disposal event<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Every electronic has some kind of chemicals in it,&rdquo; said <strong>Larry Wiss<\/strong>, communications officer at <abbr>UH<\/abbr>&#8217;s Information Technology Services department. &ldquo;Once you throw it into our landfill, if it breaches and it breaks, all of those chemicals are leaching into the soil, going into the groundwater and becoming part of our waste stream.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/ewaste\/\">Education and Government eWaste Disposal Days program<\/a> features drop-off sites on <span aria-label=\"Kauai\">Kaua&#699;i<\/span>, Maui, two locations on the Big Island and three on <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span>. The sites are all on <abbr>UH<\/abbr> system campuses except for the Kona location, which was held at a local public high school. <\/p>\n<p>The program is open to the general public, all public or private schools and universities, government agencies and small to medium size businesses like Independent Electronics, a <abbr>TV<\/abbr> repair company. Owner Chris Nishimura says it is the responsible thing to do since there are no electronic recycling centers in <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We don&#8217;t want to throw things in our landfill because eventually it gets in the water and effects everybody later on,&rdquo; said Nishimura. &ldquo;It&#8217;s not so much us, it&#8217;s our kids and our grandkids.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>Many <abbr>UH<\/abbr> employees also came down to dispose of their old electronics.  University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M&#257;noa researcher <strong>Michael Melzer<\/strong> made the trek on his motorcycle. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;You don&#8217;t want this stuff going into the landfill so I think it is a great program,&rdquo; said Melzer. <\/p>\n<p>The program started in 2006 when Apple approached <abbr>UH<\/abbr> about helping schools with e-waste disposal and that&#8217;s when everyone recognized how much of a need there was. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;So when they came back in 2008, they extended it to government, to military, to small businesses and non-profits and that&#8217;s what it evolved into,&rdquo; said Wiss. &ldquo;A public service event for all of those institutions and then one day, our last day on Saturday, is for the general public for their personal e-waste.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>All of the electronics are shipped to North America to electronic recycling plants.  <\/p>\n<p>Go to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/ewaste\">Education and Government eWaste Disposal Days website<\/a> for information on the program and e-waste disposal in general. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>&#8217;s holds eWaste disposal event October 25-28 on <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span>, the Big Island, <span aria-label=\"Kauai\">Kaua&#699;i<\/span> and Maui.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,12],"tags":[152,947,56],"class_list":["post-11202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-video","tag-information-technology-services","tag-uh-system","tag-video-2","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11202"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135254,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11202\/revisions\/135254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}