E-waste recycling has received a great deal of attention the last few years.
E-waste, or electronic scrap, is defined as being 'discarded, surplus, obsolete or broken' electrical or electronic devices.
And is there ever a lot of it! The disposal of e-waste does involve some risks so great care must be taken when recycling this material to protect people as well as the environment.
It is estimated that 70% of all heavy metals sitting in landfills in the United States comes from electronics that have been thrown out.
In Europe, a whopping 100 million cell phones alone are disposed of annually.
As technology grows and quickly improves, many people around the world simply choose to dispose of obsolete equipment in favor of buying updated products.
The mining of copper, gold, silver and other metals used in electronic equipment is far more damaging to the environment than the recycling of those materials.
This has resulted in a huge investment of both time and money in building e-waste processing centers in developed nations worldwide in recent years.
E-waste processing first consists of taking the equipment apart so that the various components can be separated and so that the working parts can be re-sold or refurbished.
In large scale e-waste recycling, the electrical/electronic equipment is shredded as highly advanced machines separate metals from plastics.
Magnets and other components are used to further separate ferrous and nonferrous metals into small pieces wherein the copper, palladium, tin, silver and gold is sold for recycling.
Unfortunately, many consumers are unaware of how to properly dispose of e-waste.
Too often, laptops, radios, clocks and other small electronics are simply thrown into trash cans and end up sitting in landfills where they do not belong.
These consumers should be made aware of the fact that many cities have recycling centers that you can use to take computers, keyboards, printers, cameras, televisions, stereo and radio equipment so that it will be dismantled and recycled.
And for those homeowners that dump large appliances by the sides of the roads or in open fields-the next time you order a new home appliance ask the delivery person to take the old unit with him/her as this is often a service that is readily available.