Residents here will soon have new options for discarding electronic trash.

Each year, thousands of televisions, radios, old microwaves and other electronic equipment are thrown away and placed in landfills.

While Vice President Joe Biden addressed a crowd of thousands at Girard College on Martin Luther King Day, one group, Keep Philadelphia Beautiful, was doing its part to save the environment by collecting discarded electronic appliances for recycling in an effort to raise awareness about e-cycling.

A new law, soon to take affect, will make it illegal to place electronic equipment on the curb as trash and require that these items be recycled.

“We are trying to create an efficient, green way to allow people a means to recycling their old electronics,” said Selena Brown of Keep Philadelphia Beautiful. “As opposed to having them throw things in the trash, we are providing them an avenue to recycle their electronics.”

Outside of Girard College awaited several trucks on which the hundreds of electronic devices were to be transported.

Once removed from the site, they were taken to a waste management processing facility where they will be deconstructed with the plastic, metals and other parts separated for use in new products.

According to John Hambrose, community relations person coordinator for Waste Management, the company is North America’s leading recycler and provider of environmental services.

During the recycling campaign, residents dropped off their electronic equipment at the site where Waste Management Company volunteers sorted and packed them to be taken away and recycled for free. Tons of items were believed to have been collected.

“We are going to take this back and safely disassemble and recover all of the plastic, glass and metal from them and assemble new products,” Hambrose said.

Those wishing to utilize such services will have to wait just a little longer to do so, however.

“I’d ask them to hold on to those things [electronic trash] a little bit longer because there is a new state law that will provide free electronic recycling to homes and small businesses,” Hambrose said. “In coming months you will see that there will be places to drop off these electronics.”

Phoebe Cole, executive director of Keep Philadelphia Beautiful, says that the new law, taking effect in 2013, and would forbid residents from placing covered electronic objects on curbside as trash for pick up.

“We are using this project to try to educate citizens that this law is coming very shortly and you should understand what options you have to dispose of your electronics,” she said.

Cole noted there are several options people have of discarding their old electronics.

One of them is to sell old products back to companies who offer money for such items. Another is to utilize some of the recycling efforts being hosted around the city.

“There are a lot of neighborhoods doing local collection drives,” Cole said. “There are neighborhoods in Northern Liberties, Chestnut Hill and Mount Airy already doing them, and I expect more will come on line.”