Fifty years ago, it would have been unheard of to separate a bottle in a separate trash container (unless you were going to get your nickel deposit back). Today homeowners don’t give it a second thought to segregate paper, plastic, and aluminum for recycling. It is part of the cultural psyche to consider the environment by saving renewable resources. But what about the electronic devices that are past their prime and have been replaced?
According to the EPA, in 2007 2.25 million tons of electronic products were manufactured, yet only 414,000 tons of end of life devices were recycled. This makes electronic devices the fastest growing waste stream on the planet. Consider that 130,000 PCs were discarded last year, along with over 1 million cell phones. The challenges go beyond filling up our landfills.
Electronic devices contain plastic, glass, and precious metals that could be recovered if disposed of properly. Depending on the price of these materials, it becomes quite attractive to recyclers to process discarded electronics. (Gold is currently over $1,000/ounce!) Recovering and reusing these materials also reduces the impact on the environment of having to process new material. There are other reasons to recycle as well.
Many of the components of electronics are hazardous. Most electronic devices contain mercury, cadmium, and lead. Dumping such material into landfills creates an environmental issue. Last, there is a very important byproduct of PCs that must be considered before disposal; it might contain private information and personal data!
What Can Be Done?
Before discarding any electronic devices, be sure that any data on them has been destroyed. Cell phones need to be wiped and disks from PCs and servers should be formatted using a file delete utility specifically for destroying data. An associate of mine (and an avid hunter) would use his old disks for target practice. Nothing says “unrecoverable” like a 30.06 round.
Before discarding old equipment, consider donating old equipment to charitable organizations. There are several in the area that take and refurbish old equipment. One such organization is “Nonprofit technical Resources”. Information about them can be found at www.ntrweb.org . If the equipment really needs to be disposed of, there are a few options. Manufacturers often offer to recycle old equipment when purchasing new. Also, big box stores often provide for taking your old equipment (often even if you are not buying new). A great resource can be found on the “Earth911” website at http://earth911.com/electronics/proper-disposal-and-recycling-of-e-waste/ .
Chuck Virtu