E-waste recycling collection is on hold at the Solana Center’s Encinitas location after the city asked that it be stopped because it ran counter to municipal code.
The program, which ended March 19, was stopped after city officials informed the Solana Center for Environmental Innovation that such e-waste collections qualified as hazardous waste. The action came from a staff determination and not from the City Council, a city representative said.
“In alignment with the Encinitas Municipal Code (Chapter 30.57), which prohibits the establishment of permanent hazardous waste collection facilities, including electronic waste, the City has advised the Solana Center to discontinue its electronic waste collection activities,” Lois Yum, Encinitas public information officer and assistant to the city manager, said in a statement to the North Coast Current. “This decision was made by City staff in adherence to existing city code requirements and was not a directive from the City Council.”
Solana Center leadership expressed frustration over the program’s end.
“We are disappointed that we are not able to continue our e-waste collection program at this time,” Robin Fator, the nonprofit’s marketing and development manager, said in a statement to the Current. “This consistently utilized service diverted more than 27,000 e-waste items from the landfill during our 23-24 fiscal year alone. We are concerned that without our drop-off site, more discarded electronics will find their way to landfills going forward.”
Despite the suspension of Solana’s program, center and city officials noted the value of such efforts and expressed optimism that it could be revisited.
“In the future, we hope to find a solution to this issue by working with the City of Encinitas,” Fator said. “In the meantime, we urge everyone to utilize other resources available for e-waste and hazardous materials collection.”
Yum said that the city is directing residents to other options for e-waste recycling. Among those alternatives is the city’s own new quarterly e-waste drop-off events, the first of which is scheduled for April 26 at City Hall.
“The Solana Center for Environmental Innovation has been a valued partner of the City of Encinitas for many years, supporting a wide range of environmental education and sustainability initiatives,” she said. “We recognize the importance of providing convenient and safe disposal options for electronic waste and want to reassure residents that several alternatives are available at no cost.”
Solana Center’s e-waste webpage at solanacenter.org/electronic-waste/ now directs people to other resources in addition to updates to the end of its program.
“It is critical that we keep electronics, batteries, fluorescent bulbs and other consumer products out of our landfills because as they break down in a landfill they release toxins into the air, water and soil,” Fator said in her statement, encouraging community members to contact city leadership. “If keeping electronic waste (and other materials that become hazardous) out of the landfill is important to you please let the City of Encinitas know.”
The city is also directing residents to other e-waste recycling resources such as curbside pickup by appointment with trash hauler EDCO and drop-offs at regional facilities in Vista and Poway.
