Rural Minnesota Struggles with Excess Electronic Waste

There are some rural Minnesota counties that continue to struggle with the ongoing issue of excess electronic waste. Scenic landscapes are often cluttered with used printers, computers, and other items that can be termed as e-waste.

The issue is being looked into by several different agencies. Pope County environmental technician Ben Cogger is one who has been sent to check out an abandoned farm littered with an array of dead gadgetry.

“Dot matrix printers, bubble jet printers, the insides of computer hard drives, mother boards,” Cogger said. “Looks like (someone) cleaned out NASA or something here and piled it up in the yard.”

Cogger says the mess started a few years ago when the farm’s owner decided to launch a computer recycling scheme. Eventually both the idea and the farm were abandoned.

Over the years, the farm has attracted those who were looking for a spot to dump electronic equipment. Currently, Cogger estimates there are thousands of TVs, computers, and monitors at the farm, possibly leaching heavy metals into the soil. The county doesn’t have the funds or resources to clean up the mess.

Unfortunately, dumping e-waste in rural Minnesota is a common practice. People may find computer monitors abandoned in ditches or TVs thrown into a local bog.

“One or two of those a month probably. The majority of people will call in and say ‘I picked it up and I’ll take care of it, but I just wanted you to know that I found this out here,’” Cogger said.

For environmental information in Minnesota, visit: mnaction.org/