How to Recycle Your e-Waste

Written by / Inhabitat

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    • recycle_ewaste.jpgThe United Nations Environmental Program estimates that each year, 20-50 million tons of e-waste is dumped into landfills around the world, ranging from old phones, TVs, microwaves, computers and more – but most of the time it’s not because these gadgets are defunct; they’re being dumped in favor of new releases. While getting your hands on a new piece of tech can give way to countless hours of entertainment, it also brings with it a whole lot of toxic waste. Most people fail to properly dispose of their unwanted electronics, carelessly trashing them without regard to the hazardous materials they contain, including PCBs, lead and mercury. Many of these chemicals are known to cause cancer, respiratory illness, and reproductive problems, and damage the earth by seeping into the soil and ground water. What can you do to stop this dangerous cycle? Well since we’re 100% sure that you’ll one day soon find yourself with some unwanted electronics on hand, we’ve rounded up 6 sustainable tips to help you deal with electronic waste. 

    1 recycle ewaste.jpg1. Recycle Them
    Step away from the trashcan! You should never dump unwanted electronics – instead, take them to an e-waste recycler. Many local and big box electronic stores like Best Buy and Staples have in-store recycling programs and will handle your small gadgets for free, and bigger items such as a computer or TV for a small fee. You can also check e-Steward for additional resources. However, be very sure that you’re turning your electronics into a responsible recycler that promises not to export to e-waste dumps, and abides by BAN guidelines. Countries like China and India handle recycled waste at a much lower cost than the US, but they also follow less strict modes of handling. Oftentimes the same tools used to melt down the reclaimed materials are being used for other things like cooking — even by children — essentially poisoning them through ingestion. And this is on top of the toxic fumes they are inhaling as they melt down your gadgets. 



    2 Donate them.jpg

    2. Donate Them 
    Give your old gadgets to a friend or family member, and if you can’t find a taker, try donating them to a reputable reuse organization that won’t export it unless it’s fully functional. Some good organizations include the National Cristina Foundation or World Computer Exchange. Cell Phones for Soldiers allows you to easily donate your old handset to a member of the military. Just make sure these devices are still operable, or they could end up in the trash, defeating your efforts. 


    3 sell them.jpg

    3. Sell Them 
    Many companies offer buyback programs for their old electronics from customers looking to upgrade. You can sell your old gadget and use the credit towards a newer version within the same mark. Craigslist, Amazon, Flipswap and Ebay are also great places to sell your goods – especially if you’re looking for cold, hard cash with less restrictions. By doing this, beyond saving (or making) a wad of cash, you also keep your gadget in the loop much longer, and out of the landfill. 


    4-get-crafty.jpg

    4. Get Crafty 
    Over at Inhabitat, we live and breathe green design, and we often come across inspired artists, designers and everyday folks who manage to find a new use for just about anything you can imagine. The popularity of e-waste as a prime material has certainly been on the rise and we’ve seen it turned into everything from an adorable circuit board robot to this spectacular CD sand dune in Paris. Explore your creative side and put your e-waste to an unexpected use. Not only could you come up with something as cool as this circuit board table for your living room, but you can induce some serious envy from your less creative friends. We do recommend that you educate yourself on how to handle these materials before you put something like a solder to them – safety first, always! 

    Diane Pham
    Diane Pham
    Diane Pham, Architecture and Design Editor of Inhabitat, is a freelance writer based in Brooklyn, NY. Like so many people out there she too thought she wanted to be an architect when she grew up. After graduating from USC’s Marshall School, she enjoyed a brief stint at SCI-Arc, then working for the A+D Museum in Los Angeles, Perkins Eastman Architects and Resoultion4: Architecture handling their marketing, PR and graphic work. A native Angeleno, she’s also lived in Milan and Paris, and still has her sights set beyond the borders of the US. In her spare time she enjoys traveling, learning languages, cooking, taking photographs and doing as many new things as she can, every moment she can.

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    • http://profile.typepad.com/yukayoneda1 YukaYoneda

      Buying refurbished phones is a great idea!

    • http://profile.typepad.com/lilbridge Lilbridge

      how do you go about wiping your computer clean so you can safely send it to recycling? anyone know?

    • http://profile.typepad.com/6p01543619d86e970c www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=680896056

      For PC’s use Killdisk http://www.killdisk.com/ – free for a 3 pass blank (good enough unless you have government secrets on your computer)
      For Macs you can launch them from another Mac in Firewire target mode and use a utility on from the utility disk to erase them.
      Note that the larger the drive and the more passes the longer the process.

    • http://profile.typepad.com/snapgreene Snap Greene

      Wow! such good reminders, really makes your think about where your old cell phone ends up. Also reminds us that on moving day, when you are dumping all of your old electronics, make sure to do it in a way that is safe for the environment. Ask your green movers how? follow these helpful green moving tips from #NorthStarMoving

    • http://profile.typepad.com/snapgreene Snap Greene

      Wow! such good reminders, really makes your think about where your old cell phone ends up. Also reminds us that on moving day, when you are dumping all of your old electronics, make sure to do it in a way that is safe for the environment. Ask your green movers how? follow these helpful green moving tips from #NorthStarMoving http://northstarmoving.com/blog/2011/green_moving/

    • http://profile.typepad.com/d101585255645026060 D

      If only people are enthusiastic enough to promote healthy environment, they will never hesitate to bring their old computers to the proper drop boxes (the same goes with documents that need to be properly disposed http://www.shreddingdallas.com ). It may be quite heavy and inconvenient to find a place to dump the stuff, but it’s worth the effort in taking responsibility.

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003406343886 Cathy

      through a collaboration bewteen Dow Kokam and PVI, the electric fleet will boast an advanced lithium polymer battery system that offers 140 watt hours per kilogram of

    • http://www.cpr-kitchener.com kitchener electronics repair

      This is a nicely written and well-structured article in regards to recycling electronics. Those who read will be well informed on how it’s properly done. Thank you for providing useful information. It’s important to know these kind of things.