MONTICELLO, NY — Sullivan County Manage Josh Potosek informed county legislators that the Division of Solid Waste is now in a position to once again collect e-scrap from the public at the county transfer stations.

The county has been working down its backlog of e-scrap: televisions, computers, tablets, etc., and now there is room to deal with new material from the public.

Potosek asked the lawmakers if they wanted to set a fee for collecting the electronics, which would require a rules change to the solid-waste fee schedule, or if they would prefer to have the service offered for free for the time being.

He said if a fee were charged it would be reasonable that more televisions would be disposed of on the side of county roads, whereas if the service were free that might be less likely.

Legislator Joe Perrello said he was in favor of accepting the e-scrap for free for the time being, then find out how much it’s going to cost the county and have a discussion about a possible fee at a later date.

That option was echoed by Legislator Terri Ward.

Legislator Mark McCarthy said he did not agree with the idea of making it entirely free. He said charging a small fee of perhaps $3 per television would impress on residents that the service has a value.

Bill Cutler, the recycling coordinator at the Division of Solid Waste, said the cost for disposing of e-scrap for about half of 2016 was about $20,000, and it would have been twice that much had in not been for subsidies from the New York Department of Environmental Conservation.

The consensus of the committee was that the county should accept the e-scrap for free as soon as possible, with the understanding that the public would be informed that a fee may come at a later date.

The transfer stations should begin accepting e-scrap within the next week or two.