Recycle your electronics at MODS on Saturday
Most families have at least one recycling fanatic. At our house, it's my 11-year-old daughter. She's the one who chides wrongdoers for tossing cans in the garbage. She reuses her plastic lunch bags and refills plastic water bottles.
So I don't think she'll mind giving up her collection of old cell phones. Whenever we got an upgrade, she liked to keep the old phone to play with. Now that she has her own (functional) cell phone, the old ones just litter her room.
But we can't just toss them in the trash. Cell phones and other electronics don't belong in landfills. They are filled with environmentally harmful materials, such as lead, mercury, acids and more.
So on Saturday, we'll drop off the old phones at the Museum of Discovery and Science in Fort Lauderdale, which is partnering for the first time with Broward County Waste and Recycling as part of America Recyles Day.
From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Broward County residents can bring old phones, as well as TVs, computers, keyboards, mouses, printers, VCR players, etc. for recycling. (No business-generated waste, please. Call the county if you have a truckload of old computers.)
D.J. McPherson, public education coordinator with Broward County Waste & Recycling, says the county works with ARC Broward, which either refurbishes or recycles the donated electronics. Refurbished computers, for example, are wiped clean and rebuilt, then either sold to support ARC, or donated to other charities.
MODS will also have related activities on Saturday and Sunday. From 1 to 5 p.m., kids can make their own recycled paper, and at 3 p.m. there will be a relay race for teams trying to sort a mix of recyclables.
The recycling opportunity is available to Broward County residents only (bring proof of residency and an ID). The first 50 people to drop off recyclables will receive a free Firefly kid's phone (one per car).
MODS is at 401 SW Second St. in Fort Lauderdale.
Photo: Mike Stocker, SunSentinel file
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