The City of Madison’s Streets Division made recycling free for certain electronics Monday. This included televisions, computers, laptops and monitors.

In contrast with Universal Recycling Technologies for Madison’s electronic recycling program, the city now allows recycling at no cost for its residents. According to the City of Madison, this is due to URT’s separate agreement with Samsung, who agreed to cover these costs for the remainder of 2023. 

Any Madison resident can now recycle these electronics at specified Street Divisions drop-off sites free of charge.

The City of Madison is a registered collector with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources e-cycle program and cannot receive electronics from businesses, City of Madison Streets Division Recycling Coordinator Bryan Johnson said. 

Some items such as refrigerators, microwaves and tires still hold recycling fees, according to the City of Madison.  

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Old electronics are banned from Wisconsin landfills and must be recycled due to state law. They can be disposed of at drop-off sites to be recycled for reuse of their materials, Johnson said. 

“There’s material in them that can be recovered, like all of the rare earth metals like gold and palladium and other things in our computers and devices that can make our very elaborate electronics go,” Johnson said. “We can either harvest that material from things we already have, or we could mine it out of the ground. So it just makes more sense to reuse what we have.”

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Previously, residents had to pay recycling costs to offset the cost of the city’s recycling services. That barrier is now broken due to Samsung’s contract with the URT, according to the City of Madison.

“By removing that barrier, you’re gonna get more material and you’re gonna be able to recover these things, which is what you want,” Johnson said. “We’re grateful that we’re able to remove this [price] burden so we can get more people to bring stuff to us. Don’t throw them in those dumpsters, don’t put them in front of the house. Bring them to the Streets Division drop off site.”

The city will announce at a later time whether this opportunity will be available in 2024.