Has your smartphone stopped working? Is your laptop running incredibly slow? Did you drop your phone into the bath tub? Whatever reason you may have for upgrading your electronic device, no device is ever kept forever. Eventually they become so out-dated that almost nothing works on them, and then you are forced to upgrade. So when it’s that time for you to upgrade, you should definitely consider recycling. If the device is still in working condition, then you can donate it, so that someone else may use it. If it has been physically damaged beyond repair, then you can always donate it for scape metal.
Below are 8 reasons why you should consider recycling your electronics.
1. It is easy to recycle, there are so many ways that you can use to recycle your electronics. There are certified e-cycler’s that you can find, who will destroy your sensitive data, and know the correct procedure in recycling the materials that make up your device. There are also the municipalities that will take your electronics, just do a check on all your local recycling centers. There are also take-back manufacturer programs that will take and reuse the old devices that you send to them.
2. The materials that are contained in your computer devices, primarily the glass on a CRT monitor for example, don’t biodegrade very well, which means, they may lie in a landfall for hundreds of years or more. These materials are easily recyclable, and thus, have no place being holed up in a landfill.
3. If a computer is put in a landfill, such electronic devices are capable of posing both a health and environmental hazard. Some of the components used inside these devices, if not properly disposed of, can be quite toxic to animals, humans and plant life. When placed in a landfill, there is a strong chance that these substances will leak into the soil, which can result in groundwater contamination, effectively destroying the surrounding habitat.
4. In a single year, over 40 million computers are disposed of, and that excludes the various accessories, such as printers, copiers etc. The relatively large size of your average computer, coupled with the significant number of them that are discarded each year, means landfills need to be increased quite significantly each year. Everyone should be doing their part to diminish the amount of computers that end up in these landfills. 99% of the components inside these electronic devices can be recycled.
5. Your data can be securely destroyed; the best e-waste recyclers are also proficient in disposing of sensitive data. They’ll use a number of tactics such as stripping the magnetic field off the electronic device, overwriting the data or physically destroying the device so that the data can never be retrieved. There have been a number of stories of people dumping their electronic devices that contain sensitive information on them, only for said information to end up on eBay, so it’s in your best interest to ensure that it’s securely erased.
6. Recycling potentially saves you money. There are some retailers and manufacturers out there that provide deals which entails turning in your old working device, and getting a new one either at a discount price or for free. This old device is then donated. Such offers are usually provided in the form of a voucher, which you can use to either acquire a new device or another service altogether. Either way, the end result is always win-win. You get the new electronic device and someone else gets your working but old device and the manufacturer gets to give out or sell one of their latest electronic devices. Many e-waste recycling services will also provide pick-up services at no cost.
7. With recycling you get less production waste. Recycling leads to the acquisition of new resources that would otherwise have to be mined and produced. Current statistics states that the recycling of one million laptops saves the energy output equivalent to over 3,600 homes in the U.S. each year. One metric ton of circuit boards is said to contain 40 – 800 times the amount of gold and 30 – 40 times the amount of copper mined that is contained in one metric ton of ore. In addition to all these natural resource benefits, we also get to avoid air and water pollution and the greenhouse gas emissions that come from mining and manufacturing these raw materials, which we can simply acquire from old electronic parts.
8. Other materials that can be found in our accessories and computers include the obvious plastic, but also iron, silicon, aluminium and tin. All of these materials can be used to create other electronic devices. These parts can very easily be separated and sent to these recycling facilities, where they are used to create kitchen products, consumer packing, plastic bags and other useful items. This is why it’s important we all embrace recycling.
—AUTHOR INFO—
Uchenna Ani-Okoye is a former IT Manager who now runs his own computer support website http://www.compuchenna.co.uk.
