If you unwrapped new TVs and iPhones this holiday season, be careful before just discarding your old ones in the trash. Effective January 1st, 2015 it will be illegal to dispose of electronics in with household trash. This is not meant to be a burden, but rather a simple way to avoid toxic materials from entering our waste streams. This change is actually the handiwork of our area’s former City Councilman and current Mayor Bill de Blasio. He worked on this issue way back in 2008 and helped get the Lower East Side Ecology Center to do more recycling events in our area as a way to increase education on the topic before enacting policy changes.

If you cannot make it to one of the LESEC’s many e-waste events this month, take advantage of their drop off center nearby in the Gowanus area. Laziness is no excuse for adding more pollutants and toxins to the trash.

For more on the sanitation change, check out WNYC.