The Pennsylvania Covered Device Recycling Act became law Jan. 24. That means trash haulers will no longer dispose of such electronic items.

"This law is an important step toward further reducing the amount of waste disposed in our landfills," DEP Secretary Mike Krancer said.

"There will be a host of positive impacts from this law, such as deriving economic benefits from precious metals found in electronics, eliminating heavy metals in the environment and encouraging environmental stewardship."

Lindsay Kissel, vice president of sales for AERC, an electronics recycler with locations in Allentown, said the biggest hurdle the new regulations face is with the general public.

"The awareness is not to the level it should be with the individual consumer," she said.

Kissel said most large corporations have long been participating in recycling efforts for electronics, but some small and medium businesses do need to prepare themselves for alternative methods of disposal now that the ban is in place. But she doesn't expect it to be a hard transition.

"There's no reason for any electronics to be in a landfill because they are all 100 percent recyclable," she said.

Johnny Johnson, who runs Freecycle, which collects electronics for recycling in Allentown, said he expects the industry to grow with the new regulation.

He noted that Pennsylvania is the 25th state to add such a ban and several more states are close to enacting similar laws.

He's preparing for an increase in business and expects to open a second collection location in Northampton County next month.

He said there is already a demand. In his first nine months of operations he collected over 400,000 pounds of electronics for recycling. With a second location and the landfill ban he expects to collect more than one million tons in 2013.