Remaining Kane Co. Electronics Recycling Sites to Close Friday

The final two electronics recycling drop-off locations in Kane County will close next week.

The sites in St. Charles, at 1405 S. 7th Ave., and West Dundee, 900 Angle Tarn, will stop offering free week-day drop-off services at 3 p.m. on April 8. Up until then, residents can drop off their electronics from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Monday through Friday.

Drop off locations in Batavia and Geneva have already closed. The county will continue to offer drop-off events for residents to unload their unwanted electronics -- the first of which will be on Saturday, April 9 in St. Charles. More information on upcoming recycling events can be found here.

Jennifer Jarland, Kane County Recycling Program coordinator, told the Elgin Courier-News intergovernmental agreements were terminated, leading to closures of the drop-off sites. The newspaper reports:

St. Charles officials voted to terminate the agreement because of the additional labor and liability risk, Jarland said. Public works staff have had to move heavy television sets, stack them, put them on pallets and wrap them, then use a forklift to double stack them onto trailers, she said. The village of West Dundee decided to terminate its agreement because it would not be able to handle recycling for the entire county, she said.

Kane County is not alone when it comes to closing electronics recycling sites. Towns throughout the suburbs have opted out of offering the service as the amount paid by equipment manufacturers for materials recovered from electronic devices has dropped and does not cover the cost to run the programs, according to the Daily Herald.

For right now, it will be free to drop off electronics during scheduled drop-off events in Kane County. But esidents could face having to pay in the future.

Jarland said she will bring a proposal for a TV recycling fee to the Kane County Board in May, according to the Daily Herald. The Daily Herald reports:

In the meantime, county board members will continue to lobby state lawmakers for a change in the recycling demands placed on manufactures. For her part, Jarland will reach out to the municipalities to measure interest in kicking in funding to revive the drop-off locations.

More via the Daily Herald and Elgin Courier-News