Monte Johnson, right, of Lawrence, unloads a box of electronics from his vehicle Saturday during an electronic recycling event at the Lied Center parking lot. On the left is Michael Pitts, of Topeka.

Lawrencians looking for an easy and safe way to dispose of electronics dropped off everything from old computers and televisions to defunct iPods and microwaves at Kansas University’s Lied Center on Saturday.

The city held its first-ever electronic recycling drive, drawing about 600 people who discarded close to 90,000 pounds of electronics.

The event was organized by the city, in tandem with Topeka’s Asset Life Cycles, the state’s only privately owned licensed vendor for recycled electronics, and Hamm’s Sanitary Landfill.

“They like to have the option, instead of throwing it in the trash, where it goes to a landfill,” said Kathy Richardson, the city’s waste reduction and recycling operations supervisor. She said recycling electronics keeps heavy metals, such as lead, mercury and cadmium, out of landfills where they can pose a danger to the environment.

“There has been an increase in calls lately about how to properly recycle electronic machines,” she said. “The interest is there in our community. They know that the machinery has hazardous materials, number one, and number two, they know our landfill is filling up.”

The recycling drive provided an opportunity for local residents to dispose of any type of defunct electronics. Richardson said other outlets for recycling electronics exist in Lawrence, such as a drop-off site at Office Depot, 2525 Iowa, and UNI Computers, 1403 W. 23rd St. Consumers pay a fee to leave their old equipment at Office Depot.

Area residents lined up in the Lied Center parking lot as volunteers from KU and city employees unloaded their electronics.

Lucy Remple McAllister, who moved to Lawrence from Afton, Minn., a small town near the Twin Cities, said recycling is embedded in the minds of her former neighbors. She wasn’t sure, though, how well Lawrence could organize a recycling drive, and brought a magazine in case she had to wait.

“I am highly impressed that they’re doing it, and I’m highly impressed at how efficient it is,” she said, adding that she wished the city provided curbside recycling. It is a burden on the elderly, like her father, she said.

McAllister brought several old IBM computers that belonged to her father, equipment that had been in storage for years.

“But it’s ancient, and the software’s ancient,” she said. “I’m almost forgetting how to use it.”

Asset Life Cycles, a five-year-old operation, takes the discarded equipment and tests it to see if any parts are salvageable. It then strips and separates metals and plastics that can be recycled and ships them to refineries across the United States.

“Those individuals that are earth-conscious and concerned about the environment … they want to ensure that it’s properly done,” said Asset Life Cycles co-owner Beverly Drew. She said her customers, which are typically small businesses, are concerned most about “the safety of the equipment, the security of the information and (that) it’s not going to be landfilled.”

While no plans exist at this point for another electronic recycling drive, Richardson said a future event could happen.

“We want to get all the information and learn from this event, and in the future possibly have multiple events and drop-off locations,” she said.