In light of the city’s suspended curbside pickup of recyclable electronics, a Queens lawmaker recently led a local e-waste effort in Kew Gardens Hills.
The event took place at Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills on June 27 and was a joint effort by Assemblyman Daniel Rosenthal, the Lower East Side Ecology Center (LESEC) and Councilman James Gennaro. Hundreds of Queens residents participated in the event, which yielded over 13,000 pounds of recycled consumer electronic waste.
E-Waste Event is occurring until 4PM. Stop by Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills to safely dispose of your electronics! pic.twitter.com/p8DjX4OD9v
— Daniel Rosenthal (@DanRosenthalNYC) June 27, 2021
“I am proud to see that this one event alone helped over 6 tons of electronic waste from entering our landfills,” Rosenthal said. “By providing convenient and cost-free options to residents, we not only help our environment but also enable thousands of electronics to be repurposed for communities in need. With more than 200 households coming out, I would like to thank the Kew Gardens Hills community, Councilman Gennaro’s office and the Lower East Side Ecology Center for making this event a resounding success.”
The pandemic forced the Department of Sanitation to suspend its curbside compost and e-waste programs, the latter of which allowed New York City residents to schedule an appointment for e-waste curbside pickup of items such as computers, TVs, cellphones, video game consoles and printers.
Rosenthal’s constituents reached out to his office urging the lawmaker to sponsor the June 27 event with LESEC and Gennaro.
“I am proud to have partnered with Assemblyman Daniel Rosenthal to host last week’s e-waste event, which was a huge success. For the first time in our district’s history, my office has allocated $5,000 to the Lowest East Side Ecology Center. This allocation will help to fund similar events and initiatives in the future,” Gennaro said. “The return of this e-waste event in Kew Gardens Hills is a victory for the entire community, especially since last year’s event was canceled due to COVID.”
Since the e-waste program’s suspension in 2020, LESEC has partnered with local lawmakers to host recycling events in Queens and other parts of New York City.
“The Ecology Center is happy to offer community-based e-waste events again,” said a representative from The Ecology Center. “Due to the lack of options to responsibly dispose of unwanted electronics for most of 2020, we are seeing robust participation and collected over 13,000 pounds of unwanted electronics from 219 participating households at our recent event in Kew Gardens Hills.”
Visit lesecologycenter.org to learn about future e-waste recycling events.
