Director聽Debra Hughes-Garrett and the Macon County Environmental Management Department were ready this time.聽After being bombarded on April 2, for Saturday’s electronics recycling event at Progress City, Garrett and the department changed the traffic flow, limiting cars to once entrance. They also brought in two auxiliary Macon County Sheriff’s officers to direct traffic, and hired more people to unload cars.
In anticipation of the onslaught of cars at the electronics recycling event in April, cars began showing up at 6 a.m., even though they wouldn’t start being unloaded until 9 a.m. There were 200 in line when workers unloaded the first car.
But by 10:45, traffic had slowed to a trickle. After unloading 1,075 cars on April 2, when more than 300 cars that waited as long as three hours were sent away, officials had expected to cut off collections at 900 cars. But just 400 came through — the lowest number since April 2014’s collection, and below average for the 12 events the department has held since 2012.
“We prepared for 900 cars and paid to service 900,” Hughes-Garrett said. “It’s disappointing we didn’t have more. I think there were a few things: It’s Father’s Day weekend, a lot of people are on vacation and out of town in June, and I’m sure there were some that, after last time, said I’m not doing that again.”
Christina Luka pulled onto East Mound Road near Progress City at about 6:50 a.m. As she headed east, she saw she wasn’t the only Macon County resident with the same idea. There were 14 cars in front of her.
Per Illinois law, each vehicle entering Progress City could drop off up to 10 items, but only three TVs or computer monitors. Televisions and other electronics were banned from landfills in 2012. Two businesses in Decatur used to recycle electronics, but both closed.
Best Buy, where most people go to drop off unwanted electronics, quit accepting TVs and computer monitors in Illinois in February because of a state law prohibiting businesses from charging聽fees to cover the costs of disposal. Best Buy still recycles other electronics, though.
With suddenly fewer options, when the environmental management department had its electronics recycling event in April, so many showed up police shut the event down when traffic spilled off of East Mound Road onto Brush College Road.
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