Kane County Recycles is “charged up” following the news that it has received an Illinois EPA grant for $2,000 to be used in 2015 for education and outreach on electronics recycling.

In 2009, the Illinois General Assembly passed the Electronic Products Recycling and Reuse Act (PA 95-0959). This law banned 17 categories of electronic equipment from Illinois landfills, beginning in 2010.

The law also established a grant fund for county and municipal recycling programs for educational purposes. This is the third year that Kane County has been granted the funds, which are used to produce pages in the Kane County Recycles Green Guide, to publish ads in newspapers and online, and to make signs for the permanent drop-off locations.

Electronics contain many valuable resources that can be reclaimed, reused and recycled. Recycling, rather than dumping these materials, uses far less energy than mining and refining raw metals (which include gold, cadmium, lead and silver) and reduces the amount of energy and other resources used in new product manufacturing. It just makes sense to recycle these materials.

During the five years from 2010 to 2014 Kane County conducted 60 monthly events, which, in addition to the five permanent drop-off locations, have served 69,000 Kane County residents and collected over 6 million pounds of electronics for recycling.

The five permanent drop-off locations in Batavia, Elgin, Geneva, St. Charles and West Dundee.

The Kane County event is on the second Saturday of every month, so the next two events are Feb. 14 and March 14. These events for Kane County residents are held at 540 S. Randall Road in St. Charles.

Questions: Kane County Recycling Coordinator Jennifer Jarland, 630-208-3841, recycle@countyofkane.org.