subject: Why We Recycle Electronic Components? [print this page] Why We Recycle Electronic Components? Why We Recycle Electronic Components?
It's normal to recycle paper, plastic, metal and glass as the second nature for many people, but recycling electronics takes a bit more thought and research. Among the electronics, electronic components becomes the most important to recycle. So, why we recycle them?
E-waste is including old, broken, or unwanted electronic products. There are often many chemical and mineral elements in e-waste, including copper, gold, silver, platinum, palladium and lead. If recycled properly, these wastes especially for electronic components become a valuable source of materials.
Computers contain plastic, metal and glass, nearly 100 percent of a computer can be reused as recycled material. Computer accessories like keyboards, cables, mice, computer speakers, printers, scanners, floppy drives and external hard drives can also be recycled by proper facilities. Older model cell phones can be recycled, sold online for a small profit, or donated to a variety of charities which furnish the phones for emergency use. Printer cartridges can contain hazardous materials and should never be thrown in landfills. Batteries contain heavy metals which leach into the soil and groundwater in landfills. Dry cell batteries contribute about 88 percent of the total mercury and 50 percent of the cadmium in the municipal solid waste stream.
Most computer and electronics companies offer recycling programs. Toshiba and Dell offer free, convenient ways to recycle your old products. Companies like LG and Sony offer TV recycling programs. The Electronic Industries Alliance, eia.org, provides a list of nonprofit organizations that accept used, working TVs.
Find the e-waster recycling facility near you, and treat the old electronic components appropriatly. To train environmental awareness, start from you.
