Mount Kisco, NY Diamond Properties celebrated Earth Day with its annual collection drive of recyclable electronics from its tenants, an effort originally inspired by Diamond’s participation in the Westchester Green Business Challenge (WGBC).

In 2014 the WBGC, an initiative to move companies toward cost-effective environmental sustainability, motivated Diamond Properties to start the collection drive. The requirements of one of the challenge’s categories, materials management/waste & recycling, were met by having employees bring in electronics from their homes to complement the office recycling program for tenants.

Because of the success of the program, the company decided to repeat the event for its tenants every year. In 2015, Diamond Properties collected and recycled 4,372 pounds of electronics. This year, the Diamond Properties team visited 15 properties throughout the week gathering recyclables and collected 7,912 lbs of electronics.

“Our goal in 2016 was to exceed the collection amount and unexpectedly we doubled our number,” said Laressa Gjonaj, marketing manager for Diamond Properties.

The company has a strong focus on renewability, re-purposing and especially recycling. In the past two years tenants’ participation has grown. Unlike other recycling products which mostly consist of plastics and paper, most people don’t know where or how to safely discard their laptops, phones and other electronics.

Tekovery was invited back for the third time to collect the e-waste, and this year Diamond Properties required two pickups to accommodate the estimated ten pallets of collections. 

“By recycling our E-waste, we reduce our carbon footprint,” said Jim Diamond. “Tekovery safely removes hazardous items, precious metals and other materials before recycling any IT assets. They have a no-landfill policy in accordance with a 2015 law banning the recycling of electronics in landfills, and their recycling processes follows their eGreen environmental procedure. All materials recycled are dispersed into over 40 material streams, and electronics that can be refurbished are re-distributed.”

Jim Diamond said Diamond Properties plans on continuing its commitment to environmental sustainability by holding E-waste collection drives every year with the goal of collecting more recyclables than the previous year.