Anyone with old cellphones, iPods, laptops and other electronic devices can recycle their electronic waste at a Super Bowl event in Fair Lawn today.

The National Football League has organized the event as part of its pre-Super Bowl activities, said Jack Groh, the NFL's environmental program director. The NFL has held a number of environment-related events leading up to this year's Super Bowl, scheduled for Feb. 2 at MetLife Stadium.

Football fans and anyone else can bring electronic waste to the Fair Lawn headquarters of AnythingIT, a recycling company located at 17-09 Zink Place, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. today. Cellphones, laptops, computer towers and monitors, and game consoles will be accepted. Televisions and household appliances will not be accepted.

A similar event is scheduled for Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Manhattan at Duffy Square in Times Square, off Seventh Avenue between 46th and 47th streets.

"Collecting e-waste is a new project for the NFL," Groh said in a statement. He said it adds "one more element to the overall 'greening' of the Super Bowl."

The NFL and the NY/NJ Super Bowl Host Committee are partnering with Verizon and the Broadway Green Alliance to sponsor the two recycling events. Verizon will restore old cellphones and donate them to shelters in the region, and the Broadway Green Alliance will distribute collected iPods to nursing home residents.

The United States generated about 3.4 million tons of electronic waste in 2011, up from 2.5 million tons in 2010, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. About 25 percent of the electronic waste in 2011 was recycled, up from 20 percent in 2010.

The EPA estimates that recycling 1 million cellphones can recover 50 pounds of gold, 550 pounds of silver, 20 pounds of palladium and 20,000 pounds of copper. Recycling e-waste uses less energy than mining new metals.

New Jersey is one of 25 states that have some form of an electronics recycling law. New Jersey's law, which took effect in 2011, prohibits televisions from being thrown into the general waste stream. The law requires television manufacturers to collect the old sets by establishing their own drop-off points or contracting with retailers or local governments to do it.

Link:

NFL hosting Super Bowl recycling event in Fair Lawn