SENNETT - Record numbers showed up for the Cayuga County home electronics and propane collection event Saturday morning as people turned in their former treasures.

County environmental engineer Bruce Natale said that last spring was the highest turnout to date, but this collection surpassed that as 477 vehicles were processed.

“That's nearly two a minute,” Natale said. While 330 TVs were counted, no final count was available for computer monitors.

Sean Boyle, of Auburn, got rid of old cell phones and a microwave oven. Tina Brechure, of Auburn, turned in a computer that she said probably still works. Thomas Penman, of Auburn, recycled a working television. He said that he had put it out on the curb in front of his home in hopes that someone could use it, but it was damaged by someone who only wanted part of it, so he decided to bring it to Saturday's collection.

Two trailers parked at the Natural Resource Center on County House Road stood waiting to take on 50,000 pounds of electronics - TVs, microwaves, stereos, computers, and an occasional cell phone.

“Only 1 or 2 percent are reusable,” Natale said. “It's the oddball stuff, unusual electronics, that is sometimes reusable.”

Natale said these truckloads would end up at Regional Computer Recycling and Recovery, a recycling center in Victor to be disassembled and recycled. He said that center unloads dozens of trailers per week and uses a lot of manual labor in the dismantling process, making their fee slightly higher than that charged county residents for the drop-off.

There's a market for leaded glass, he said, with each screen backed in lead crystal, and there's a smelter for picture tubes.

Gary Hurd, of Weedsport, and his son, Scott, an eighth-grader at Weedsport Junior-Senior High School, were slinging propane tanks and air conditioners onto two trucks to haul back to Finger Lakes Recycling Center in Weedsport.

Hurd has been in the recycling business since 1992, but this is his sixth year for Freon recovery, he said.

Gary and Scott work together at their small demanufacturing facility, bottling extracted Freon on an automated assembly line. The bottles are then shipped to a Hudson facility to be repurfied and used again in refrigeration.

Hurd said he began recycling Freon because recyclables were less harmful to the environment.

“I didn't like the 'scrappies' going around and cutting (refrigerant) lines without concern for the environment,” he said.

The propane tanks he collects are shredded down after valve removal and the sides are punctured to avoid possible explosion.

Michele Wunderlich, of Baldwinsville, and Azure DeAngelo, 11, of Red Creek, greeted cars and trucks at the center, sending them to the right lane after counting them.

Carol MacKenzie, of Weedsport, and Dorothy Dresser, of Conquest, collected cash and directed vehicles according to items they were hauling.

Irene Holak, of Auburn, an environmental educator for Cornell Cooperative Extension, and Renee Jensen, principal environmental educator there, were also helping coordinate the effort.

“Once it was noon, the traffic slowed down,” Jensen said. “Last year was our largest increase, but this year we surpassed it.”

People paid $5 for each computer monitor and TV they dropped off, with a limit of two per carload. Copiers were collected at $10, and small propane tanks were free.

Staff writer Kathleen Barran can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 238 or kathleen.barran@lee.net