Recycle E-waste

The Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation (a non-profit public service organization) just started a new website, www.call2recycle.org, with everything you need to know about recycling the rechargeable batteries found in cellular and cordless phones, cordless power tools, laptop computers, camcorders, digital cameras, and remote control toys. As I've mentioned before, it is very important to recycle these batteries. Here are three reasons why:

1) Coltan is a tar-like mineral found primarily in the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), and is vital in cellphones, laptops, pagers and other electronics. Congo rebel armies sell it illegally to buy weapons. Illegal mining of it in Congo's eastern lowlands has decreased gorilla populations. When you decrease the need for coltan, you decrease illegal mining and the reduce finances for the civil war in Congo. You also help protect gorilla populations.

2) Between 50 and 80 per cent of e-waste from North American cell phone companies ends up in China, Thailand, India and Pakistan. Workers are exposed to many toxic compounds and are paid $1.50 a day or less to break apart and process electronic equipment. When you recycle, your waste does not make someone else sick.

3) According to a Canadian report, 4,328 tons of telephones, fax machines and cell phones will end up in landfills this year. That's equivalent to the weight of 583 African elephants. We don't have room for that kind of waste. Recycling reduces waste.

Okay, so now are you ready to recycle? The cell phones are either refurbished for reuse or recycled in an environmentally-sound manner. The rechargeable batteries that power the cell phones and other products are recycled to reclaim reusable materials that are used in stainless steel production and to make new batteries.

Note that the website can be viewed in Spanish, Chinese, French or English, or you can call 1-877-2-RECYCLE for more information. So find a drop off site near you, and answer the call to recycle!
Want another way to deal with e-waste? That's the tons of waste from electronic tools and gadgets that poison the environment, poison people and animals, and help fund civil war. By now you know, that you can and should recycle rechargeable batteries from cell phones, cordless phones, power tools, computers and the like. You know that the recycled materials will be refurbished or used to make new batteries. But did you know that you can get paid to recycle these materials?

The mission of Cell for Cash is "to help consumers and businesses capture the value of their unused cellphones." All you do is enter your cell phone manufacturer and model. They'll tell you how much you'll get. (I could have gotten $8 for the phone I recycled a few months ago.) Enter your address to request a free postage paid box to send your phone. When it arrives, mail off your phone, then sit back and wait for your check!

There are over 100 million unused cellphones in the hands of U.S. consumers and businesses. This is a great way to get rid of them! Now you can eliminate e-waste in a socially and environmentally responsible manner, while you do something useful for the humanity and the environment, and GET PAID! How much better could it be?

At times it may be necessary to temporarily accept a lesser evil, but one must never label a necessary evil as good. - Margaret Mead, anthropologist (1901-1978)