RedOrbit.com: Recycling of Electronics Slow to Catch On
Filed under: Earth 911 - April 18, 2008
Although many U.S. consumers say they support recycling, a large number are not recycling electronic appliances and other gadgets, despite various programs providing hassle-free ways of doing so.
Dispensing with televisions, computers, cell phones and other electronic equipment by putting them in the trash is becoming increasingly unacceptable. Indeed, some states, such as Massachusetts, have banned the practice altogether. And many local authorities, charities and companies around the country have started arranging free events in which they offer to recycle the old devices.
But despite these efforts, many have not yet embraced the new methods. Stephen Baker of NPD Group, a consumer research firm, has an idea why.
“People aren’t doing it because people are lazy. When it comes right down to it there are no incentives. Most of the time it costs them money and even if it doesn’t, the customer has to be proactive,” Baker told the Associated Press.
According to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), consumers in the U.S. will spend $171 billion on some 500 million electronic devices this year, adding to the existing 2.9 billion electronic appliances and devices consumers already own. On the positive side, CEA reports the percentage of discarded electronics thrown in the trash decreased from 21 percent in 2005 to 19 percent in 2007.
Many of the new purchases will replace existing devices, with some passing older devices on to friends and family. Others may take a more entrepreneurial approach, selling their old devices on eBay or craigslist.org.
Research firm iSuppli said less than 10 percent of consumers recycle their cell phones, despite programs by major wireless companies such as AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel that accept old cell phones at their retail stores. Groups such as greenphone.com will even pay consumers for their old cell phones.
“I had originally been saving mine for my grandmother and the years went on,” said Tracy Sullivan, a marketing specialist who lives in Medford, Massachusetts, as she recalled having to make a big effort to find local recycling options.
“You have to really want to recycle and find the information. It’s there if you go looking for it,” she said.
In Chelmsford, Massachusetts, a city with 33,000 residents, sanitation workers will not collect televisions and computers placed for curbside pick-up after the state banned the trashing of those items.
But Chelmsford is struggling to find successful alternatives. Some local companies will pick up the gadgets for a $10 to $50 fee, depending on the type of and number of devices. Jennifer Almeida, Chelmsford’s recycling coordinator, said the city is looking for lower cost alternatives that she hopes will be launched this summer.
The city’s twice-yearly recycling event allowing residents to discard electronic appliances have been “extremely inefficient,” Almeida said, even when hundreds of devices are discarded.
“It’s a bit of a madhouse,” she told the Associated Press, describing lines of cars waiting with engines running.
“It’s not convenient for residents and it’s just not earth friendly. It’s a whole lot of cars burning a whole lot of fuel.”
Companies such Dell and Staples also offer recycling programs. Dell will pick up its own computers or printers from consumers’ doorstep free of charge, but will only collect non-Dell PCs from those purchasing a Dell computer. Staples collects small items such as keyboards for free at its retail stores, but charges $10 for larger devices.
Linda Wilson, director of technology at Hoffman Agency in Denver, told the Associated Press she was surprised by an enormous bill she received from Waste Management Inc for collecting old computers, some of which her co-workers had brought in from home.
“They said they’d pick it up for free but when the driver got here he said, ‘Didn’t they tell you it’s $10 a monitor?’” she said, adding that the recycler would not guarantee it would remove data from computer hard drives. People are often reluctant to recycle computers out of privacy concerns, since personal data can remain on hard drives despite efforts to wipe them clean.
“You’ve got to be careful,” said Wilson, noting that overwriting a disk several times could help.
Although consumers can often find recycling options by visiting their local authority’s Web site, experts say the options vary widely among different locations.
“I suspect everybody has an option. It depends whether you want to go to the trouble of finding it,” said NPD’s Baker.
In the mean time, an abundance of recycling information on sites such as earth911.org and ww2.earthday.net can be found. Earth Day, which began in 1970 and is scheduled for April 22 this year, promotes awareness of environmental issues such as recycling.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s eCycling Web site also contains helpful information about recycling various electronic devices.