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Goodwill to stop accepting donated TVs on E-waste recycling law

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PENNSYLVANIA (Scrap Register): Goodwill Industries of Southwestern Pennsylvania said that it can no longer afford to accept donated televisions because of the surplus of TVs created by the state's e-waste recycling law.

The Pittsburgh-based charity, which operates 30 retail stores, will stop accepting televisions on July 14.

"We regret that it has become economically impossible for us to continue accepting TVs. While we are pleased that we played a part in keeping a large amount of old TVs out of landfills, we simply cannot afford to pay to continue taking them," said Michael Smith, president and chief executive officer of Goodwill SWPA, in a statement.

After the state's Covered Device Recycling Act went into effect in January, which banned all landfills from accepting TVs and other electronics, there has been a continuous flood of TV donations to Goodwill and other like agencies.

According to a report, agencies like Goodwill must get permission from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to recycle a certain amount of such items each year, and Goodwill reached this year's limit in only six months.

Goodwill was given permission to collect 1.5 million pounds of televisions this year, approximately twice the amount they were allowed to recycle in 2012.

Smith continued that “it would cost Goodwill $125,000 to recycle the agency's large backlog of televisions now. Instead, Goodwill plans to hold onto them until the DEP determines the agency's recycling limit for 2014.”

Still, Smith emphasized that Goodwill is still accepting donations of many other electronics.

"There is still a strong market for computer recycling, so we encourage people to donate their old computers to Goodwill," he said.

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