Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity

Short Description
Because most individuals and business have computers, and these computers are replaced at the rate of almost 240 million per year, E-waste is the fastest growing segment of the nation's garbage.

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BLH Computers, Inc is a Springfield based company and is one of the largest collectors and processors of computers and end-of-life electronic equipment in the area. Permanent drop off locations in Jacksonville, Taylorville and Decatur feed the 20,000 square foot processing facility in Springfield. At any given time, BLH's warehouse in Springfield contains thousands of computers, laptops, monitors, and printers. The company actively recycles non-working units to avoid ending up in landfills.

BLH was first awarded an Illinois Recycling Grants Program for business expansion in 2002. The Illinois Recycling Grants Program helps communities, businesses, and not-for-profit organizations collect and process materials for recycling through both technical and financial assistance.

The State Energy Office at DCEO awarded BLH Computers an additional grant in 2010 to grow and expand their scrap recycling processing operation. Through this grant, BLH has been able to improve aging loading and unloading facilities, build extra storage and add two employees, with the result of improved material handling.

In FY10, DCEO supported projects that diverted 287,310 tons of waste from landfills.

According to Brian Dickerson, president of BLH Computers, "Without the grant funds, it would be increasingly difficult to handle the large increases in recycling caused by the new E-waste law. Over the last decade, we have seen 25% growth in the recycling collected every year. This grant will help us increase capacity to process an additional two million pounds of electronics." Last year, BLH created 3 permanent full time jobs as a result of the increase in flow of materials.

BLH, which was founded in 1995, has been able to recycle nearly 10 million pounds of electronics since it began keeping detailed records in 2001. According to Brian, the impact of the grant has been, "nothing but positive. This grant has given us the needed equipment to increase capacity to meet the electronics recycling needs of central Illinois."

This grant funding has enabled BLH to remain the industry leader in the Central Illinois area in computer and electronics recycling. Find out more about the Illinois Recycling Grants Program.