By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

Members of the Alabaster-based Girl Scout Troop 146 are looking to cut down on the amount of electronic waste sent to the Shelby County landfill while giving local residents a chance to safely dispose of their unused electronics.

Troop members Emilee House, Isabel Klinner and Katherine Mandy have been working to partner with the Premier Surplus company to host an e-cycling day on April 20 at the Shelby County Instructional Services building at 601 First St. S. in Alabaster.

The event will be held from 9 a.m.-3 p.m., and will give residents a chance to dispose of their unneeded electronics instead of sending them to the county’s landfill, the Girl Scouts told the Alabaster City Council during a recent work session.

During their presentation, the scouts told the council some chemicals in electronics can eventually seep into the ground and affect the water table. The county landfill already works to recycle many electronics, but does not sort electronics placed by residents into their curbside blue bins.

“Many e-cyclable items are easily discarded in these bins, such as printers and cell phones,” read a Troop 146 press release about the event. “It is estimated the Shelby County landfill will reach capacity by 2030.”

Recycling electronics also encourages the reuse of precious metals used to manufacture electronics, the scouts said. Nationwide, more than 3 million tons of electronic waste are discarded annually, including more than 41 million desktops and laptops, 31 million monitors and 400 million other components such as cell phones, according to the scouts.

During the e-cycling day, residents can recycle items such as fax machines and printers, computers, monitors and cell phones. Televisions will be accepted, but likely will come with a disposal fee, the scouts said.