A Commerce City electronics recycling drive brought thousands of residents to Dick's Sporting Goods Park, where they dropped off old televisions, laptops, cellphones and other equipment. The event was among the largest electronics recycling drives in Colorado, according to Denver7.
The September 12 drive at the sporting goods park's Lot H collected 125,500 pounds of electronic waste from 1,166 vehicles over five hours, according to Trustburn. Held in partnership with ITAD Electronics Recyclers and sponsor Crusoe, the event pushed the total amount diverted from landfills by the drive series since 2021 above 938,000 pounds, per the same report. As Denver7 reported, Matt Donatell arrived before dawn to claim the first spot in line, saying the early hour was no obstacle after last year's turnout was so large that traffic spilled onto the highway.
A Parking Lot Full of Decades-Old Gadgets
The equipment collected reflected several decades of consumer technology. Attendees brought televisions, cellphones, laptops, stereos, 8-track players and other electronics, including items that had remained in homes since the 1970s, according to Denver7's reporting.
Denver7 reported that workers Henry Renteria-Vigil and Adeyiz Renteria-Vigil helped process the incoming equipment, including older audio devices and heavier items.
How This Drive Compares With Earlier Events
An earlier comparison is Denver7's 2023 electronics recycling drive, held Saturday, Sept. 9, in the same Parking Lot H at Dick's Sporting Goods Park, but with Techno Rescue as the recycling partner, according to Denver7. The September 12 event instead partnered with ITAD Electronics Recyclers, as noted above.
Why Colorado Drivers Pay to Drop Off Their Old TVs
The predawn lines are not just about decluttering. Under Colorado's Electronic Recycling Jobs Act, enacted in 2012 and enforced since July 1, 2013, state law bans households and businesses from tossing electronic devices — including televisions, computer screens larger than four inches, printers and laptops — into public landfills, according to Junk Same Day. Waste haulers and landfill operators are legally barred from knowingly accepting e-waste in standard curbside trash.
Unlike states with extended producer responsibility rules that require manufacturers to fund collection systems, Colorado's 2013 law placed no financial obligations on electronics makers, according to Blue Star Recyclers. That shifted the cost of ethical recycling onto residents, nonprofits and event organizers, who now rely on entrance fees to stay financially viable. At the Commerce City event, organizers charged a baseline $5 per carload for most household electronics, with specialized fees running from $20 for LCD televisions up to $75 for DLP or projection sets, according to Mile High on the Cheap. The event also offered three-pass data wiping and physical media destruction, though hazardous items such as mercury devices, pressurized canisters and un-sanitized medical equipment were strictly barred.
A Bigger Stake Than the Landfill
Matt Donatell, who arrived first in line, told Denver7 that he wanted his grandchildren to grow up with clean air and water. The environmental stakes extend beyond the event: discarded electronics account for roughly 70% of the heavy metals found in U.S. landfills, including lead, mercury, cadmium and arsenic, according to EACR Inc., even though e-waste makes up only a small share of total municipal solid waste. Those metals do not biodegrade and can linger in soil indefinitely without certified processing.
The scale of the problem stretches well beyond Commerce City. Worldwide electronic waste hit a record 62 million metric tons in 2022, an 82% increase since 2010, and is projected to grow another 32% to 82 million metric tons annually by 2030, according to the UN's Global E-Waste Monitor as cited by UNITAR. Only 22.3% of that global total was formally collected and recycled, and in the United States, EPA estimates suggest just about 25% of discarded consumer electronics are diverted from landfills or incinerators, per RePCB.
The Untapped Value Sitting in Junk Drawers
There's real money buried in that pile of old gadgets. The raw materials embedded in the 62 million metric tons of e-waste generated globally in 2022 carried an estimated value of $91 billion, including $19 billion in copper and $15 billion in gold, according to emew Clean Technologies — yet only $19 billion worth of material was actually recovered through environmentally sound recycling.
That gap has started drawing federal attention. In August, the U.S. Commerce Department issued an order prohibiting the export of tungsten scrap and lithium-ion battery waste, known as black mass, for 386 days in an effort to force domestic recyclers to process critical minerals within the United States, Hoodline reported. Closer to home, Colorado is building out its own processing capacity: in April, the Colorado School of Mines acquired a 50,646-square-foot lab facility in Golden for $5.85 million, aiming to bridge academic research with commercial-scale critical minerals and battery recycling, according to Hoodline's earlier coverage of the purchase.
Back at Dick's Sporting Goods Park, organizers said the event routinely collects thousands of televisions, cellphones and laptops each time it runs, according to Denver7. For Donatell, Renteria-Vigil and the other attendees, the drive provided a way to clear out old electronics while keeping them out of landfills.
