Great Lakes Electronics Corp. is once again
conducting a consumer Earth Day recycling
drive targeting e-waste.
The big difference this year is an
enhancement of the
Detroit company's
relationship with Best Buy -- a gift card is
now provided to the first 100 people to
donate at each location -- and a geographic
expansion to the Best Buy in Grand Rapids
and Flint. Old and unwanted consumer
electronics will be collected at six
Michigan Best Buy locations on Saturday,
April 26. Collected will be computers, monitors,
printers, cell phones, televisions, VCRs and
video game consoles, which have rapidly
become one of the nation’s most significant
environmental problems. According to the National Safety Council,
in 2008 more than 500 million PC’s will be
relegated to scrap in the U.S. alone.
Environmental issues caused by hazardous
amounts of toxic heavy metals including
lead, cadmium and mercury, make it critical
to keep these materials out of landfills and
incinerators. The Great Lakes Electronics recycling
drive with Best Buy will take place April 26
from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Staffed collection
trucks will be stationed at six Best Buy
locations: Grand Rapids, 39000 Alpine
Ave.; Flint, 3660 Miller Road; Farmington Hills,
30830 Orchard Lake Road; Madison Heights,
32320 John R Road; Novi, 21051 Haggerty
Road; and Ann Arbor, 3100 Lohr Rd.
“E-waste is an enormous and growing
environmental problem,” said Nathan Zack,
founder, CEO and president of Great Lakes
Electronics. “Working with Best Buy provides
a great opportunity for consumers to safely
dispose of unwanted and broken electronic
equipment. We’re hoping consumers will take
advantage of this free program and
bring in
their obsolete electronic devices. Our
employees will be on hand to load the
equipment onto our trucks.”
Besides environmentally friendly
disposal, Great Lakes Electronics also
offers secure destruction of information on
the devices. Memory devices such as computer
hard
drives will be accepted at the event
and shredded at Great Lakes Electronics’
Detroit plant. Shredding the hard drive
destroys all data in security compliance
with the Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act (HIPPA), Fair and
Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) and
Department of Defense requirements (DOD).
Refrigerators and air conditioning units
will not be accepted.
“This is a great opportunity for spring
cleaning,” added vice president Kerry
Grushoff. “We are proud to be growing and
thriving Detroit-based business that is
helping to
improve the environment. We hope
everyone will take advantage of this
environmentally friendly way to dispose of
their obsolete and broken electronic
equipment.”
Great Lakes Electronics Corp., founded in
2000, is one of the largest electronics
recycling companies in the United States.
With a nationwide pickup service, the
company
works primarily with corporate
clients, large retailers and government
agencies that need a safe, secure and
reliable method for recycling their
electronic equipment. Great Lakes
Electronics has grown to more than 120
employees at six recycling centers in
Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta, Ga., Daytona
Beach and Orlando, Fla. and Ontario, Canada.
Corporate headquarters and a
100,000-square-foot recycling center are
located at 12600 Greenfield Road in Detroit. |
