Brick's E-Waste Piles Up at Recycling Center

Did you get a shiny, new flat screen to replace your old television set for Christmas this year?

If so, you have a lot in common with your fellow Brick residents. Hundreds of old televisions, computer monitors and other obsolete gadgets are on display in what could only be described as an e-graveyard at the township's recycling center on Ridge Road.

A large industrial container is overflowing with electronic devices, and even more are piled up next to it as residents continue to drop off their soon-to-be-forgotten pieces of technology from years gone by.

But where does it go from Brick? The first stop, according to township Business Administrator Scott Pezarras, is right next door.

"We take it to the Lakewood recycling center," he said, a facility run by the county that serves local municipalities.

In years past, he said, township crews took e-waste to a landfill, but new state laws now require such refuse to be carted to a proper recycling facility.

The township pays for disposal, but items brought to a recycling center end up earning the township recycling credits. Those credits are used by the state to calculate grants that the township can earn, effectively meaning that some of the cost of disposal is recouped.

"The more recyclables you get out of your community, the more you get back," Pezarras said, adding that is one of the reasons township officials have been looking to convert home recycling pickup to automated cans and trucks, which encourage more people to recycle.

As for where the e-waste ends up, it's anyone's guess. Journalists have followed Americans' old gadgets to China, as well as Ghana, among other far-off countries.