Benefits of Electronics Recycling

Electronics recycling is a more recent development as concern has grown about the various toxic materials and chemicals built into the computers, televisions, fax machines and other electronic devices that often end up in the landfill. The concern about electronics includes the space they will take up in landfill, along with the potential for toxic materials to leak out and spread to nearby areas.

What's in our Electronics?

From the lead in the cathode ray tubes or CRTs that used to be the most common type of desktop computer picture screen to the cadmium, silver and lithium in many of the batteries, there are all sorts of toxic materials in the electronics that are disposed in some of the approximately 1,800 landfills throughout the country. The danger in the landfill is that some of these chemicals will seep out and mix with other toxics, or rainfall will simply eventually spread some of these materials into nearby water supplies. For example, the cadmium that can leak from batteries could cause severe lung damage just by breathing in too much of the chemical. Lead can damage the nervous system in both adults and children and is also present in electronics.

Growing Problem of Electronics Waste

Officials with the Environmental Protection Agency estimated that electronics waste made up about 1 percent of solid waste in landfills in the country as of 2005, and that figure was expected to grow rapidly with the increasing popularity of electronic devices like laptop computers, TVs and cell phones. According to the EPA, about 30 to 40 million personal computers will be discarded during the last few years of the first decade of the 21^st Century. In that same time span, experts estimate 25 million TVs will be disposed of, as well as millions of cell phones, VCRs and other electronics. The total for 2005 was an estimated 3 billion pounds of electronics.

Turn to Electronics Recycling

The rapidly increasing amount of electronics into the waste stream is the main reason government officials and large companies are encouraging electronics recycling. There are a number of benefits to electronics recycling:

• Reuse of electronics. Recycling programs often first consider whether a computer, VCR or other electronic can be repaired and reused. Repairing electronics delays their introduction into the waste stream and can be a benefit at a reduced cost to whoever purchases repaired electronics.
• Removal of toxic materials. If the electronics device cannot be repaired, all toxic materials are first removed so that they cannot become a danger in a landfill.
• Safely dispose electronics. Encouraging electronics recycling may result in more non-working computers, VCRs and other electronic devices being turned in. Experts have estimated that as little as 5 percent of all electronic devices are disposed of or recycled. The rest are stored and generally forgotten, a dangerous situation because of the toxic materials in many electronic devices.