While consumers buy increasingly sophisticated electronics—from flat-screen TVs to leaner laptops—one Spokane Valley business sees growth in higher piles of discarded cathode-ray tubes, computer towers, and other items destined for the techie graveyard.

Electronic Recycling LLC, doing business as Inland ReTech, collects yesterday's technology, arranges it, and shrink-wraps it on pallets for shipment. Its main revenue source comes from a payment-per-pound arrangement with the statewide E-Cycle Washington program, funded by electronics manufacturers.

Owners Curt and Donna Burge, the sole employees, say the company is among a handful of businesses and nonprofits here contracted to operate as E-Cycle Washington collectors through the Washington Materials Management & Financing Authority, a manufacturer-funded group for the statewide recycling of computers, monitors, and TVs.

Because of that two-year-old program, Inland ReTech doesn't charge Spokane residents, schools, charities, and small businesses for disposal when they bring those products to the business, located at 7203 E. Nora, in Spokane Valley.

Inland ReTech does charge for pick-up service, ranging from $25 to $200 depending on distance and truck size. It also handles a small-scale resale operation for some electronics that don't qualify for recycling under the program.

The Burges say that activity has picked up through the program as more people discard tube-type TVs and computer monitors in favor of power-saving, lighter weight, and more efficient models. The trend also corresponds with the move from analog to digital TV signals, and to improved electronics overall that are smaller, faster, and more affordable.

"Technology is moving so fast; it's making a lot of things obsolete," Curt Burge says. "People want the newer stuff."

He says many schools and businesses have converted to computer displays with light-emitting diode, or LED, technology in order to lower their power costs.

"With overall electronic products costing less, and the fact they use less power, the power savings alone makes it worth it for schools and others to buy this new stuff," he says.

Donna Burge says residents mostly bring in tube-type computer screens and vintage TVs. "We get a lot of large, weird projection TVs, and the old console TVs in the huge wooden cabinets."

She adds, smiling, "They're very heavy. I have the scars to prove it."

She says she thinks the volume of goods brought in has grown a little this year because of schools changing out their equipment.

However, both say revenues haven't grown in proportion to volume—just yet—since prior to the e-cycle program two years ago, they charged people to take in the electronics. That isn't a bad turn, the Burges add, since the couple say they bought the business in 2008 because of their interest in recycling. Just prior to purchasing Inland ReTech, the couple had sold a document shredding business here, B&B Shredding LLC.

"It's just a different business model," Curt Burge says. "You get more volume; revenue decreased a little bit, but the up side is there's more recycling in our state than ever before."

"We decided to do this because it was recycling's next big thing, the up-and-coming business," Donna Burge says. "We thought if we can collect this stuff and we got into the e-cycle program, it's better than it going to the landfill or the incinerator."

They estimate that the business prepares 10 to 15 loads of electronic products per month for the e-cycle program, totaling about 200,000 pounds a year. Until it can prep loads for shipment, it stores the old electronics temporarily inside or just next to a leased, 3,000-square-foot warehouse space next to its front office.

Inland ReTech gets paid by Washington Materials Management & Financing Authority based on pounds per load delivered and weighed at a recycling processor site, the Burges say. The authority estimates electronics collected from Spokane County totaled 2 million pounds through last November, the E-Cycle Washington website says. Statewide, the 2011 year-to-date recycled electronics as of November was estimated at 38 million pounds, with almost 70 percent of that being discarded TVs.

The state program, operating under state Department of Ecology guidelines, contracts with recycle processing facilities for the removal of toxic materials—including lead, cadmium and mercury—and to separate out metals, plastics, and glass to be reused as raw materials in the manufacturing of new products. Donna Burge says there are a lot of toxins in the picture-tube monitors and TVs.

A majority of the processor sites are located on the west side of the state, she says.

To qualify for the state program, old technology must be delivered as a whole unit—it can't be dismantled.

The e-cycle program doesn't include printers, copiers, and cell phones, but Inland ReTech accepts toner and printer cartridges, which it sells to other U.S. recycling businesses nationwide. It also takes old cell phones that are sent to The Wireless Alliance, a cell phone recycling company.

"We get paid for the toner cartridges," she says, adding that she ships them to recycling businesses usually located on the East Coast. "There are all kinds of recyclers, and they refurbish them. Buyers are always looking for them, especially laser jet cartridges."

Occasionally, Donna Burge says she also will take an item, such as a laptop, that doesn't qualify for the e-cycle program and refurbish it to sell at a discounted price. Other resale examples include older computer software and books.

"I get a lot of computer geeks looking for parts," she adds. "I have fellows come in who are still working with Windows 98, and they're looking for older cards or parts, so I hang on to the old stuff."

Other items that don't qualify in the state program probably don't have much value, she adds.

"I have a heart defibrillator out there," she says. "People bring us the strangest things."

The Burges say they expect their business to grow long term.

"As fast as technology is moving, I expect the industry and all of recycling to grow," Curt Burge says. "We've been in the recycling industry 20 years in either shredding or recycling, and at the end of the day, you know you're doing something positive for the environment."