Tatooine Electronic Systems

Montana has a great recycling treasure in Billings called Tatooine Electronic Systems. Owned and operated by Brandon Fox, Tatooine collects many electronics such as TV`s, computers and monitors. Many metals and plastics that rather than being buried in the landfill, can be recycled into new consumer goods. Computer monitors, for example, have 4-8 pounds of lead in each unit. This lead, the plastic casing and the glass tube can all be reused or recycled. The lead is collected and melted and used for other electronics. Plastic casing on the outside of monitors is ground up into powder, then pressed into pellets. The pellets have a dye added to them and then they are ready to be melted back down and pressed into a new shape, maybe even another monitor. Some of this plastic is used to make pallets. Pallets traditionally are made of wood, but these can wear out and eventually have to be thrown away or burned. Recycled plastic pallets last much longer and stack closer together taking up less space. Ironically, Tatooine Electronic uses some of these recycled pallets to store monitors that will be recycled back into more pallets. Since Tatooine opened in 2006, they have kept over 250,000 tons of electronics out of our landfill. This is so dramatically important considering the toxicity of the heavy metals in our electronics, paired with our landfill being old enough to not have been built with a closed bottom. The theory at the time the landfill was created was that the hard clay and bedrock would keep the chemical runoff from affecting our water supply. Testing of the area has proven, so far, that not enough toxins are leaching from the landfill to be of concern, however, it is far better to keep as many toxins as possible out of that hillside. Along with the satisfaction of keeping electronics out of the landfill, recyclers can feel good about limiting the need to mine metals out of the Earth. Many metals such as copper, aluminum, lead, gold, cadmium and others can be taken out of old electronics, melted down and turned into usable metals cutting down on our need to mine new ores for industry. Cost to recycle is .30 cents per pound.

Please get in touch with Tatooine Electronic Systems from the Contact box on the right.