The business is called Total Reclaim, and for the past four years it's been the go-to destination for Alaska's burgeoning inventory of e-waste.
There's no law against just dropping small batteries or fluorescent light bulbs, both of which contain toxic heavy metals, in the household trash, says Total Reclaim manager Larry Zirkle. Or hauling larger objects like computers and TVs to the dump for a fee.
But doing so, he says, wastes the nation's natural resources, clogs the landfill and endangers the environment. So his customers are willing to pay 35 cents a pound to have such items either recycled locally or shipped to Seattle to be recycled there.
For the past month, Total Reclaim has been teaming up with the Municipality of Anchorage to allow residents to recycle old TV sets rather than taking them to the dump. Fees range from $15 for a standard 19-inch TV to $40 for a giant movie screen.
That's to pay the cost of shipping to Seattle, where most of the parts get recycled, and to send the lead (the toxic heavy metal that lines an old TV's cathode ray tube) to a one-of-a-kind smelter in Wisconsin.
But it's also to help Zirkle and his staff earn a living. Total Reclaim, which opened in Anchorage in 2005, is a for-profit company based in Seattle It's the largest electronic recycler in the Pacific Northwest.
Total Reclaim's hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday though Friday, but the warehouse will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday to host a municipality-sponsored TV recycling event. It's located at 12101 Industry Way, Unit C (in an industrial park west of the Huffman Carrs store).
Find George Bryson online at adn.com/contact/gbryson or call 257-4318.
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