Boston Herald: Disposing of E-waste
Filed under: Earth 911 - January 20, 2008
The Herald features a story today about how quickly consumers go from one techno-gadget (MP3 device, cell phone, laptop, etc.) to another these days. From that story:
“The Environmental Protection Agency projects that 283 million personal computers will be sold this year, and U.S. residential and business users toss about 133,000 PCs daily. The United Nations environmental program projects there will be 2 billion cell phone users worldwide this year; 130 million cell phones are thrown out annually.”
Now, I recently upgraded my cell phone and the new company enclosed a plastic bag mailer which I could put my old cell in, drop it in a mailbox and it would be recycled. And my town has a location for people to drop off certain types of electronics (old tvs and monitors), but I am not sure how much of those dropoffs are recycled or reused, but I assume they are disposed of in a more ecological way than if they were just put in the trash.
Earth911.org is one resource I found on the web that offers a lot of helpful information on recycling “e-waste.” From that site:
“E-waste recycling options vary across the country. So, the first step to determine what options are available in your area is to review information about your local recycling program.”
Try out their search engine at the top of the page which will help direct you to dropoff sites.