by Dana MacDonald |
E-waste is creating serious environmental and health hazards. How many electronic products did you and your family use today? Too many to count? You’re not alone. In fact, technology has been incorporated in our lives so seamlessly that some people – especially kids – don’t remember life without the convenience of computers, cell phones, and DVD’s.
Sure, life seems easier now, but beneath the glitzy benefits of technology looms a dark secret. As technology gets updated faster and faster, a crushing mountain of electronic waste, or “e-waste”, is generated. So what’s the problem with e-waste and where does it all go?
E-waste contains over a thousand chemicals, many of which are toxic and can create environmental and health hazards. Just how hazardous e-waste is depends on the amount of toxic substances present in it. Among all e-waste, computer waste is the most toxic – plastics, lead, cadmium, chromium and mercury top this list.
Furthermore, electronics consist of valuable resources, such as precious metals, copper, and engineered plastics, all of which require considerable energy to process and manufacture. Here’s an example of the power of recycling: By recycling 100 million phones, approximately 7,500 pounds of gold could be recovered – allowing that amount of gold to go into new products! Recovering the gold from cell phones, rather than mining it from the earth, would prevent 12,000,000,000 pounds of loose soil, sand, and rock from having to be moved, mined, and processed.
Prevention is the key, and fortunately, many of these electronic products or their parts can be reused and help prevent the scary sci-fi future of a toxic planet. Donating used, but still working, computers, printers, speakers, cell phones and related equipment for reuse extends the lives of valuable products and keeps them out of the waste stream for a longer period of time. While those electronics may not meet your needs any longer they may be exactly what another person needs to write their life story, learn a new skill that earns them a promotion at work, or just watch a good movie with their family.
Electronic waste or e-waste is the popular and kind of sassy name for electronics that are not going to be reused because they don’t work, are no longer safe, or are obsolete. According to the EPA, in 2007, approximately 414,000 tons of e-waste was collected in the US for recycling.
With e-cycling, there is good news and bad news. The good news: all types of electronics can be recycled. Your LCD monitor, cell phone, iPod, laptop, television, fax machine, microwave and refrigerator. They are mainly made up of plastics, metals, and glass. All those commodities can be recycled, and go back to new products, and be reused. Reuse is the essence of great recycling practices.
The bad news, in Nevada there are only a few collection sites and even fewer recycling centers. To further complicate things, neither the collection sites nor the recycling centers are set up to accept all electronic waste. Unfortunately, that means many of these items end up in land fills and on our beautiful desert through illegal dumping.
A common misperception is that someone is prospering from your donated or disposed of electronics. While it may be true that someone is benefiting from your unwanted electronics, that’s very different from prospering. In some states, like our neighbor California, recycling e-waste is mandatory. In Nevada, home of the rugged individualists, there is no such requirement and as such there is no state or federal funding to support this effort.
There is gold (and copper, silver, aluminum, and stainless steel) in many electronics but demanufacturing any equipment to get to its commodities is a pain staking and expensive process. The value in the metals does not match the expense in safely and correctly breaking them down. Electronic waste collection sites must handle large amounts of items, storage, and shipping. In Nevada, programs like these are self-funded. Your hard-earned tax dollars are not paying for this service. Increasingly, environmentally responsible e-waste collection sites charge a small disposal fee to help cover these expenses. If it seems like e-waste recycling is someone’s get rich quick scheme, rest assured disposal fees are very reasonable. Properly disposing and recycling e-waste is an uphill task because of the hazards involved. Ask yourself, can we afford to continue to further liquidate the environment by inappropriately disposing electronic waste?
The mantra of “reduce, reuse, recycle” applies to electronics more than ever. Here’s how you can help save the planet in four easy steps:
- Take Action. Decide what you’re going to do with your electronics when you are no longer using them. Give them to a friend or relative, bring them to a local collection facility or donate them to a charity.
- Discover a responsible e-waste collector or recycling facility in your area. Ask them where their e-waste comes from; what their recycling methodologies are or where their commodities go “downstream”; and lastly how much do they truly reuse, either in refurbished products or in new products.
- Make arrangements to deliver your e-waste to its new home. If you are recycling it, some collection facilities may even pick it up from you for an additional fee.
- Buy green. When purchasing new electronic equipment, ask your retailer about “environmentally preferable electronics.”
References:
- US Geological Survey “Recycled Cell Phones – A Treasure Trove of Valuable Metals” (PDF) (July 2006)
- www.epa.gov/osw/partnerships/plugin/reuse.htm
For more info, contact Dana MacDonald, New2 U Computers, (775) 329-1126 or dmacdonald@disabilityresourcesnv.org
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