What is eWaste and how can we protect ourselves from it?

Footprints in the sand...easily washed away by the ocean waves.  Carbon in the atmosphere...with time consumed by earthly vegetation.  Toxic elements and chemicals in the soil, air, and water...

Difficult for even mother nature to deal with.  Excess carbon here can be managed with a reduction of other carbons elsewhere but the contamination of our environment anywhere is a resource lost.  Household and commercial items such as those listed at the left below contain highly toxic elements and chemicals that if released into the environment are difficult and costly if not impossible to remove.

The best way to deal with them is to dispose of them through a reputable recycling program.

Outdated and excess inventories of electronic equipment contain a vast collection of reusable and recyclable materials. The processes to reclaim many of these materials is beyond the ability of most end users, in fact, some of the methods are specific to only one type of recovery process (e.g. heavy metal recovery from PC boards) and are more costly than purchasing new materials. It is the removal of these hazardous materials from our environment that makes the recovery worth while.

We have programs in place to handle all of the ewaste in your inventory. For more specific information send and email to john@toxicfootprint.info.

G r e e n  P R O J E C T

Here is a project you can do with your friends.  Each of you make a list of the eWaste items that you find in your homes and then meet to compare notes.  What did you discover?  Do you have similar items or are they all different?  Discuss how you get ride of each of these when it is time to dispose of them.  Do you agree with your friends?  Do they have some good ideas?  How do you dispose of eWaste?

Green Links

• Sustainable Design Update