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E-WASTE SYSTEM CHANGES APPROACHING

By Wes Clement/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Friday, September 11, 2009 11:42 PM CDT

MONTICELLO — The way counties dispose of electronic waste is expected to change soon.

“There are some states that have banned some e-waste, and some states have banned all e-waste (from landfills),” Andrew Armstrong, a Southeast Arkansas Economic Development District grants administrator, said before a monthly SEAEDD board meeting in Monticello Thursday.

“Arkansas is one of those states banning all e-waste from going into a landfill,” he said.

E-waste will have to be recycled, he said, and it will be more costly than using a landfill. Transportation costs of operating a system by which all e-waste is taken to two collection hubs then to Texarkana are a large part of projected overall program costs.

“The way Southeast is set up is a spoke-and-wheel-like system,” Armstrong said. A Hamburg landfill is the area’s current e-waste hub and Armstrong said he hopes Jefferson County’s landfill will become a second hub.

The development district is to be split into the northern five counties and the southern five counties, he said, and all e-waste would be collected in enclosed trailers at the two landfills.

The items would likely be hauled from the hubs directly to UNICORE, a recycling facility within the federal prison at Texarkana, Armstrong said.

UNICORE salvages valuable metals and other materials to be recycled.

“There are some meetings going on with the state figuring out how we need to run it, what the most efficient way is, how much money it’s going to take,” Armstrong said. “There’s a lot of unknowns still that we’re really trying to get ironed out.

“In the next six months we’ll see a lot going on with that.”

Glenn Bell, SEAEDD director, said he had heard rumors general improvement funds (GIF) were to be released within the next month or two.

“What I’ve been told is 75 percent of the money that was appropriated will be released in this first round,” Bell said. “The amount of money is a little up in the air. We know we’re eventually going to get $250,000 like we did last time, and we’ll get 75 percent of that $250,000, but the Speaker of the House has appropriated some money for some of the other legislative districts.

“We don’t know exactly where that money’s been earmarked, and we don’t know exactly how much it is.”

He talked to those in attendance — city mayors, county judges and others — about starting to gather information regarding projects they would like to see funded, so when the appropriate time comes, the district will have projects on deck.

He said application for funds would be delayed until the first-round GIF release dollar amount and target projects types are known.

Bell acknowledged David Steinmetz of Waste Management and the Arkansas Department of Correction for their efforts to clear two lots adjacent to the SEAEDD office at 721 S. Walnut St. in Pine Bluff.

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