Thanks to this assignment I learned something about my town. North Arlington, NJ residents are not to discard any electronic equipment on the garbage, or the sidewalk. These artifacts must be disposed at 50 Disposal Road in North Arlington. You can take it there yourself, or call the Town Hall’s sanitation department to arrange a pick-up Monday through Friday between the hours of 8:30am and 3:30pm. I’ve never disposed any large electronic artifact, and the few times I have upgraded anything, the old equipment usually still works, so I either give it away to a friend or donate it to Salvation Army. Now, I know what to do in case something breaks.
My building has a designated area where we place our recyclables and garbage. The super comes every morning to put it out on the sidewalk. I guess she is the one that makes the call to sanitation every time someone leaves non-recyclable, and non-garbage type of things. I’ve never get to see her, though. This week nothing exciting happened in our garbage area, so nothing was collected from there. Instead, I took a drive to 50 Disposal Road, where I have never been before and had no idea where it was.
The place is about a 5 minute car ride from my house. I took a trip there on Thursday Sept. 1st at 1pm. I had not idea what to expect and was not sure where I was going. I followed the E-WASTE signs and arrived at a big container full of old TV sets. It’s a open space, and it does not have a pleasant smell. Some cars were parked near a building that looked like a loading dock. I realized that I could not reach inside the huge container so I went back home to get my steps. Once I gain some height, I looked inside and grabbed what I knew I could carry and fit in my car: a couple circuits, a computer router, a keyboard, a Direct TV scanner. I tried grabbing a Compaq monitor but couldn’t reach inside, I also saw a large flat screen TV (I can’t imagine how the owner felt when disposing it. I looks expensive). I ended up grabbing a tube TV set with a sticker that says “works” since it was the easiest to reach and pull without falling from the steps. I also added the site to Foursquare.
UPDATE:
Monday Sept 5th at 4pm
Today I checked my building’s garbage area and nothing else was disposed. So, I went back to 50 Disposal Road to see if perhaps someone took advantage of the long weekend to do some cleaning. And, I was right. I noticed that more old TV sets were dumped and found two printers! A very old one and a not so old one. Both seem to be leaking toner. The newer one doesn’t have the power supply cord but I grabbed it anyways, perhaps we can find an adaptor that fits, and see if it works.
I checked in using Foursquare again and now I’m the mayor at the E-waste site. I also noticed the stench is gone, and so is the pond that was nearby. I guess the workers that arrived there on Thursday drained it out. I added more pictures to the album.
I’m going to need help bringing up the printers and TV set to the classroom.
