What to Hdo with Your Old Gadgets
Electronic Gadgets Are Terrible Landfill
Introduction to gadget disposal
Gadgets make terrible garbage. And they make a LOT of it. Millions of laptop computers, cell phones, cameras and tons of other gear gets put into landfills where it leaches poisons into the soil, and eventually into drinking water.
There are better ways to get rid of your old gadgets
How many gadgets do we throw away?
Americans buy a lot of stuff, including a lot of electronics. Most of it is replacements. And we throw away the old stuff. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that, in 2007, Americans threw away 2.25 million tons of consumer electronics. That's 4,500,000,000 pounds of electronics! About 15 pounds of consumer electronics for every man, woman and child in the country. And 82% of that is in landfill.
Why it's so bad to throw away consumer electronics
Consumer electronics aren't just boxes of iron or some other relatively harmless material. They have poisons in them. That's OK when you're using them: No one is going to nibble on a computer or cell phone! But if you put those electronics in landfill, the chemicals eventually leach into the soil, and, from there, into drinking water. You don't want to drink this stuff.
What sort of stuff is in there? According to PC magazine, laptops have beryllium, lead, chromium and mercury compounds, all of which are toxic. Other electronic devices have similar materials.
What to do with old electronics?
You can try to resell them, but this may be difficult. Places to try to resell electronics include e-bay, and gazelle.com. You can also try to just give them away, via a site like freecycle.org. But electronics get obsolete fast. If you don't manage to resell or give away your old consumer electronics, there are stores that will accept them. According to Scientific American, Best Buy, Target and Radio Shack will accept old computers, GPS units, TVs, printers, cell phones and other gear.
Of course, another idea is to not replace everything quite so often.
Summary
Don't throw away your old electronics. Sell it, give it away, or recycle it.
Source: Scientific American, May, 2011
What's inside your laptop? PC magazine
Gadgets make terrible garbage. And they make a LOT of it. Millions of laptop computers, cell phones, cameras and tons of other gear gets put into landfills where it leaches poisons into the soil, and eventually into drinking water.
There are better ways to get rid of your old gadgets
How many gadgets do we throw away?
Americans buy a lot of stuff, including a lot of electronics. Most of it is replacements. And we throw away the old stuff. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that, in 2007, Americans threw away 2.25 million tons of consumer electronics. That's 4,500,000,000 pounds of electronics! About 15 pounds of consumer electronics for every man, woman and child in the country. And 82% of that is in landfill.
Why it's so bad to throw away consumer electronics
Consumer electronics aren't just boxes of iron or some other relatively harmless material. They have poisons in them. That's OK when you're using them: No one is going to nibble on a computer or cell phone! But if you put those electronics in landfill, the chemicals eventually leach into the soil, and, from there, into drinking water. You don't want to drink this stuff.
What sort of stuff is in there? According to PC magazine, laptops have beryllium, lead, chromium and mercury compounds, all of which are toxic. Other electronic devices have similar materials.
What to do with old electronics?
You can try to resell them, but this may be difficult. Places to try to resell electronics include e-bay, and gazelle.com. You can also try to just give them away, via a site like freecycle.org. But electronics get obsolete fast. If you don't manage to resell or give away your old consumer electronics, there are stores that will accept them. According to Scientific American, Best Buy, Target and Radio Shack will accept old computers, GPS units, TVs, printers, cell phones and other gear.
Of course, another idea is to not replace everything quite so often.
Summary
Don't throw away your old electronics. Sell it, give it away, or recycle it.
Source: Scientific American, May, 2011
What's inside your laptop? PC magazine
Published by Peter Flom
I am a statistician, working with a wide variety of clients, mostly researchers in psychology, education, medicine, social sciences and other fields. I also have given talks and written articles on learning... View profile
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9 Comments
Post a CommentGreat article! Thanks for the information.
Outstanding advice, thanks!
Great article. I believe that recycling is the answer.
For security and identity theft reasons, I would remove the information storage areas such as hard-drives and SD cards if personal information was ever stored there.
As our electronic devices get smaller, we use more of them! The largest part of the new ones are the human interfaces -- the displays and the keyboards. Maybe someday we will eliminate those with a direct connection to our brains. NOTE: I currently have an embedded piece of electronics in my body (pacemaker) which I expect to replace in ten years (because the battery will be dead). Good article!
Hi Michael
Yeah, that 'hdo' is irritating. And I submitted this one in a format that can't be edited.
Good info about a real problem and what to "hdo" about it. It's amazing how many electronic devices we have... and how often we replace them.
Excellent article. Apt points.
Our local store has a buy-back program - you can trade in any old electronic gadget towards a credit for a new one. What they do with them - I've no idea though. cheers ;)