Computers, old cell phones and other discarded electronic devices were some of the items collected during the People’s Emergency Center’s e-cycling, electronic recycling event, held on Saturday at Saunders Park in West Philadelphia.
Members of the community were asked to bring their old electronic trash to the site where they could be collected and safely recycled to avoid the possibility of contaminating the planet in landfills.
“The People’s Emergency Center hooked up with the people of Penn Medical Center and did a special e-cycling event in the community,” said People’s representative Kevin Musselman. “Neighbors as well as PEC and Penn Presbyterian Hospital employees had the opportunity to take all of their old e-waste and bring them to a centralized dropoff where they could have them recycled responsibly.”
To do this, the PEC partnered with E-Force Compliance, a company based in South Philadelphia that Musselman said has a zero-landfill policy.
“All of the items that they collect at these events are disassembled and the materials are recycled,” he said. “They separate metal, glass and anything else and make sure that none of this stuff goes into landfills or overseas.”
Jim Mack works is the community as an outreach director for E-Force Recycling.
“We recycled 5,646 pounds of obsolete electronics, and this was done with the help of Presbyterian Hospital community outreach folks and the People’s Emergency Center,” he said.
Mack added that a lot of heavy metals and toxic materials are found in electronic materials that could have a devastating impact on the environment if placed in landfills.
E-Force Compliance also ensures that the materials aren’t exported overseas to foreign countries to avoid their going into landfills there as well.
“They could have a very adverse affect on the environment, and that’s why a hundred percent of what is left here is recycled,” he said.
The event provided employees with a green way of recycling anything that could be plugged in, said Gary Ginsberg, assistant director of facilities at Penn’s Presbyterian Medical Center.
“The hospital owns the property at Saunders Park and we work closely with the community to improve the environment of the park and make it a more enjoyable place for them to utilize,” he said.
