Piles of televisions are pictured before the fire. (Photo courtesy of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes & Energy)

DAGGETT TOWNSHIP — An electronic scrap collection, once used as a side business to support a veteran’s family, has now been cleared.

The veteran, identified as “William” in a press release from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes & Energy, was a World War II veteran living on a fixed income in Daggett Township. Social security paid William and his wife a limited income, but as living expenses rose, that income didn’t cover the daily living costs. Taking a few televisions for a small fee and recovering the valuable material from scrap electronics would help them earn some extra money to help them with daily expenses. According to the release, William figured that he and his wife lived in a very rural area of the county so no one would notice.

They ran an ad on the local radio station, whose essence was “Bring us your unwanted televisions and we will take care of them.” The release mentioned that residents had no other recycling options in the area, so the electronics showed up. Even though the state had a takeback program, it seemed to have left rural areas of the U.P. out of the loop.

More televisions began to come in, alongside some computers, printers, and refrigerators. Soon, more came in than William would scrap out, and some problems came with the increased volume of electronics. Some of the electronics had materials that could not be recycled, they had no value, and they were very expensive to get rid of. If they were hauled to the local dump, it would wipe out the income being made from the metals and wires in the electronics.

William tossed the stuff with no value into small piles, where television tubes and plastic TV carcasses started to pile up – some so high that the house couldn’t be seen from the street.

Glass TV tubes were piled among the trees around the house, and the dump would take a few of the glass tubes, but not as many as had been collected.

The dumping eventually extended several hundred feet on each side of the house along the road, including the stuff that had no value. The increasing eyesore led to some neighbor complaints to the township and the county. The township couldn’t do anything because they didn’t have a blight ordinance to enforce the cleanup, and the county didn’t respond. According to the release, the local road commission told William that he needed to stop. William tried to slow things down, but people continued to dump stuff on their own, and it extended out into the roadway as more material was collected. In the winter, snowplows would knock some of the dumped TVs into the road ditch and the yard.

A neighbor called the Department of Natural Resources to see what they could do as TV parts, tires, refrigerators and other electronics continued to pile up. The local DNR office sent the Environmental Conservation Officer assigned to the area to assess the situation. The ECO referred the situation to EGLE, as EGLE inspectors typically assist local officials with handling solid waste dumping complaints. Given the extent of the problem and the continued dumping, EGLE solid waste inspectors issued cease and desist letters to William, encouraging him to stop taking in stuff and start a cleanup.

As William didn’t have the financial resources to clean up the mess, EGLE helped out and was able to remove things like tires from the property through state grants. Other EGLE staff worked to get old electronics cleaned up, but that would have involved piling them into boxes and loading them into a semi-trailer, which was out of the question due to William’s age and condition.

On a night in November, the space heater within William and his wife’s home caught their bedding on fire, with the house and the piles of junk outside the home going up in flames. William’s wife was able to get out of the house with their family cats, but William perished in the fire.

Half-burned TV tubes, broken TV tube glass, piles of whole and half-melted electronics, piles of melted plastics and other materials from the scraping business littered the property. The site sat untouched for two years.

EGLE asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to investigate the site for an emergency cleanup. A site assessment was conducted but the results of the sampling didn’t reveal high enough levels of contamination for the EPA to do a cleanup. The dumping by residents continued so EGLE staff appealed to its leadership for funding to clean the site, given that it was a physical hazard with the broken glass and bare TV tubes.

In spring of 2025, the cleanup was completed with EGLE funding. The site still contains a very small amount of broken glass, but the physical hazards have been removed, which will hopefully discourage the residents in the area from using the site as a local dumping ground.

To help Upper Peninsula residents properly dispose of e-waste, EGLE ahs worked with private businesses and local governments to establish 14 electronic waste recycling drop-off locations in the U.P.

EGLE recommends that you should always call ahead to ensure your items are acceptable. Electronics that are commonly recyclable include cell phones, computers, televisions, monitors, printers, external hard drives, e-readers, tablets, and DVD players. Most locations charge a small fee to cover operating costs to make a permanent collection available to residents.

The following sites in the U.P. currently accept electronics for recycling:

• Reina Recycling: 401 Fort St., Sault Ste. Marie. Contact at 906-748-7614.

• Zellar Transfer Station: 415 Chippewa Ave., Manistique. Contact at 906-341-6955.

• Delta County Landfill: 5701 19th Ave. N., Escanaba. Contact at 906-786-9056.

• Gogebic Range Transfer Station: E5917 Hwy. 2, Ironwood. Contact at 906-932-0600.

• Sands Township Transfer Station: 987 M-553, Gwinn. Contact at 906-249-9069.

• Luce, Mackinac, Alger, and Schoolcraft (LMAS) County Health Department, MSU Extension Service: E9526 Prospect St., Munising. Contact at 906-387-2530.

• MSU North Farm: Rock River Rd., Chatham. Contact at 906-439-5058.

• Bay Mills Indian Community: 5463 S. Nbiish Rd., Brimley. Contact at 906-248-3356.

• Keweenaw Bay Indian Community Transfer Station: 16278 Ojibwa Industrial Park Rd., Baraga. Contact at 906-353-8024.

• Superior Watershed Partnership – Electronics Recycling: 519 North Lakeshore Blvd., Marquette. Contact at 906-228-6095, ext. 14.

• Goodwill Retail Locations (Goodwill locations may not accept all types of electronics):

• 2510 North Ashmun St., Sault Ste. Marie. Contact at 906-208-4202.

• 2201 6th Ave. N., Escanaba. Contact at 906-939-6332.

• 911 Razorback Dr., Houghton. Contact at 906-448-2662.

• 3125 US-41, Marquette. Contact at 906-257-2007.