E-Waste and a Vision

The hardest part about recycling with Green Vision was finding the place.

Earlier today, I set off to visit Green Vision, a non-profit organization that trains and employs adults and adolescents with autism to disassemble electronic waste for recycling.  A savvy ecoMotown reader had sent me an email to let me know about the organization.  It sounded like a worthy cause, and I was in need of a place to take my defunct printer and router, broken camera and archaic laptop (the thing is at least 3 inches thick).

Exhibit A

I loaded up  my car and headed north on Speedwell Avenue and then east onto E. Hanover Ave.  My destination: 60 E. Hanover Avenue (in between Speedwell and Ridgedale).  I definitely missed the turn in to the facility, which I found out later, is not an uncommon occurrence for first-time visitors.  After a little misguided adventure in a corporate park, I found Green Vision, Inc.  I unloaded the items from my car, and the team there wrote me a receipt for my tax-deductible contribution.  It was that easy.

Tim Butler, President of Green Vision, and Kevin Davidowich, Vice President, in their workroom.

Founders Tim Butler and Kevin Davidowich were both teachers at The Allegro School, working with children and adolescents with autism, when Tim came up with the idea to combine his love of kids, tools and recycling into what became Green Vision.  The organization provides training and part-time employment for adolescents and adults with autism, most of whom learn basic tools skills at The Allegro School.  After operating within the school for several years, Green Vision moved into its own facility on E. Hanover Avenue in January 2011.  Since opening, they’ve recycled nearly 300,000 pounds of materials.

Green Vision accepts materials from companies, municipalities and individuals alike, and the business model that Tim created assumes that everything they receive is junk.  Because their employees don’t possess refurbishing skills, newer (yet broken) computers are often given to partner companies to repair for resale.  The facility, which has 36 paid employees, recycles 99.8% of the components of the equipment it receives (with the other .2% being things like foam or treated wood for speakers).

When I asked where most of the materials go, Tim said the precious metals and wires stay on the East Coast, and the plastics are sent to China (to a recycling facility monitored by the US Environmental Protection Agency).  Because they can’t disassemble CRT monitors (older, box-like TVs and computer monitors), they have to send them to a special facility in Ohio for recycling – at a fee of $5 per monitor.  For that reason, they charge $5 for each big box monitor/TV they accept.  Otherwise, all recycling is free, and they’ll take anything with a plug.  If your item is old enough, it could end up in their unofficial museum (I was told my laptop was a contender).

Throwing your e-waste in with your municipal trash in NJ is now illegal.  Green Vision provides a sustainable option for recycling your items, while addressing environmental, social and economic needs within the community.  The organization will be at an electronics and clothing waste drive at the VFW hall in Morris Plains this Sunday, December 18 from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. at an event supporting Operation Homefront.  You can also drop off goods at Green Vision Inc. at 60 E. Hanover Ave. in Morris Plains, Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Wires fresh from disassembly.