A bout of spring cleaning resulted in Casper City Council member Guy Padgett filling his car with 15 electronic gadgets, mainly computers.

He took them to the Casper balefill to be recycled, before he remembered the fee was $10 per item.

"I won't lie, I did feel tempted to dump them in a trash can somewhere," Padgett said, when he added the numbers in his head realized the total sum was up to $150.

The landfill staff worked with him, combining multiple computer items as one, and pared the fee down to $50.

Padgett fought his urge to dump the items, paid his fee and recycled them, but the experience made him think perhaps some adjustments need to be made.

"I think as a council we need to think about how to get the word out," he said. "Ten dollars isn't a big deal, but if you let them sit around, under your house or in a basement or wherever, you will have eight to 10 of these electronic devices that shouldn't go to the balefill."

Cynthia Langston, the Solid Waste Division supervisor, said the city is looking at ways to lower the burden on the recycler and still pay the steep recycling costs the landfill bears.

She may recommend to the solid waste advisory committee that instead of one flat fee for all electronics, which the council passed in December, it create a graduated fee scale.

In this system, small electronics such as cell phones or handheld games would be free, something roughly one-square foot would be $3 to $5, medium-size items such as entire computer units would be $10 and larger items would be $15.

Right now, electronics are allowed in the landfill, but Langston said she is looking at the feasibility of banning electronics and requiring people to recycle.

Some of the larger items, she said, such as the older televisions with fake wooden sides, can be taken apart. The electronic parts can then be recycled for a lower fee.

Langston will go to the committee on May 13 and recommendations may then go before the council.

Contact city reporter Christine Robinson at (307) 266-0639 or christine.robinson@trib.com