L.A. Live and Waste Management host electronics recycling event Downtown

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Americans produce a lot of trash--about four pounds per person per day, according to the EPA. About 34 percent of that gets recycled. And California tends to do a little better than the rest of the country.

"We recycle about 50 percent of the trash that we collect but we still have a lot more that we need to do, for example today we're teaching people how to recycle electronics," says Pat Proano works with the LA County Department of Public Works.

Electronics make up only about two percent of all of the waste Americans recycle.

Juan Castro was working for Waste Management at a free electronics recycling event hosted at L.A. Live today. Castro and his team members wearing neon yellow Waste Management vests were helping pile TVs, computers, keyboards, printers, and stereos into large black bins to haul away to recycle.

"I dismantle televisions," Castro says, "we take it back to our facility, then at our facility we separate everything, we dismantle it, we make sure everything gets recycled properly."

Even though recycling electronics is Castro's job, he doesn't think a lot of people know about it.

"Actually, I'd never even heard of this until I got to Waste Management, but you know I think its a really good idea that people are recycling, you know I think it's good for the earth," he says.

The glass, plastic, and metals that make up electronics are, for the most part, all recyclable materials, but only around a quarter of all electronics in the US ever make it to a recycling facility.

"I think people don't realize that they're recyclable, so lots of times what people do, they'll either throw them in the trash or they're just taking up space in the garage or the attic or somewhere in their house," says Doug Corcoran, is director of sustainability solutions for Waste Management, "Not only are they recyclable, but they're really not good to put in a landfill."

If more people disposed of electronics properly, Corcoran says, that could make a big impact.

At this event last year, Waste Management collected 3,000 pounds of electronics. How much does that add up to?

"It saved 33,223 kilowatt hours of electricity which is enough to power three homes for an entire year," says Corcoran.

The L.A. Live event at 11th and Figueroa will go until 7 p.m. tonight. And electronics recycling is always available through the Bureau of Sanitation and some electronics stores.

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