NCHS Tech E-Waste

E-Waste

One of the mayny times that our trailer is full of e-waste

The E-Waste Problem

The environmental impact of the information revolution is staggering. Consider the following:
     *Americans discard 133,000 PCs DAILY.
    *Computers, TVs and other electronic equipment account for 220 million tons of waste each year in the U.S.
    *Estimates indicate that electronic waste is growing three times faster than municipal solid waste.
    *E-waste is responsible for 70% of all heavy metals found in U.S. landfills today.

The Need for Recycling

Our landfills are quickly becoming electronic graveyards. Yet we have done little to curb this problem. Only about 4% of households and less than 20% of businesses recycle used computers. Ironically, many of these computers are still operational or have functioning parts. Even PCs that have reached the end of their productive lives contain precious metals and recyclable plastics that can be recovered.

The Life of a Computer

There are 3 paths a used computer can take: thrown in a landfill, properly recycled, or, if still good condition, refurbished and reused. If properly recycled, its components or materials can be repurposed for years to come. Enlarge graphic

The Logic of Refurbishing

Refurbishing PCs makes even more sense that simply recycling them. Manufacturing new computers has quite an environmental impact as well. Manufacturing one desktop computer and 17-inch CRT monitor uses at least 530 lbs of fossil fuels, 50 lbs of chemicals and 3,330 lbs of water – a total of 1.9 tons of materials -- roughly the weight of an SUV!

In addition, there is a need for refurbished computers. Research estimates public school need for computers at 9 million nationally. Other countries not only do a much better job of recycling than the U.S., there efforts produce more tangible results. For example, over 25% of the computers used in Canadian schools have been refurbished; in the U.S., the figure is roughly 1-2%.

Josh bringing in a donation Non-profit groups, many whom serve low-income families, lack computer resources as well. Approximately 30%-40% of nonprofit workers do not have Pentium-level computers to perform their work.
In short, there is a significant demand for good low- or no-cost working computers, estimated at 28 million in the US.