Oregonians recycled more televisions, computers and monitors than expected during the first year of the state’s E-Cycles Program, bringing in almost 19 million pounds of the electronics.

“We thought it would exceed our original goal of 12.2 million, but we were impressed at how much,” said Kathy Kiwala, program manager with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. “Oregonians evidently had things saved up.”

The 19 million pounds collected since January 2009, when sites across the state started accepting certain electronics for free, kept about 1.2 million pounds of lead out of landfills, according to DEQ. And the agency expects the amount recycled to increase this year, with a new ban in place that prohibits throwing TVs and computers in the regular trash.

Central Oregonians recycled about 600,000 pounds of electronics at Deschutes Recycling, said Brian Stone, the company’s manager.

That’s the equivalent of about 60 semi-trucks worth of material, he noted.

“Imagine 60 semis, rolling down the road, full of the stuff that we avoided putting in the landfill,” Stone said.

It took Deschutes Recycling a couple of months to figure out how to deal with the influx of televisions and computers, he said, but the crews soon unraveled the logistics involved with buying 100 pallets a month, as well as the boxes needed to pack the devices in.

“We were almost overwhelmed last year,” Stone said. “It took awhile to get all those things in place.”

And so far this year, electronics recycling doesn’t seem to have slowed down, he said, perhaps because of the attention surrounding the ban on putting the old machines in landfills.

Statewide, there probably won’t be a slowdown in electronics recycling either. The DEQ estimates that in 2010, people will recycle 21 million pounds of televisions and computers.

“I think it’s going to take awhile for the volume to get cleared out of garages and back rooms,” Kiwala said, noting that people are also replacing electronics frequently, creating a steady stream of devices to be recycled.

The program is paid for by companies that manufacture electronics, she said, and the material collected goes to six different recycling centers, where the electronics are broken down into different components, like plastic casing, glass tubes and circuit boards, and then recycled.