Surge in e-waste hitting developing countries

Sales of electronic products in countries like China and India and across continents such as Africa and Latin America are set to rise sharply in the next 10 years.

And, unless action is stepped up to properly collect and recycle materials, many developing countries face the spectre of hazardous e-waste mountains with serious consequences for the environment and public health, according to UN experts in a landmark report released today by UNEP.

From United Nations Environment Program.

Hope for e-waste in Nigeria

That's the great thing about recycling electronics: what most Americans consider obsolete is pretty advanced for developing nations.

Time-lapsed e-waste collection

Here's how they do it in Vermont.

Small Dog Electronics, an Apple reseller and electronics store, hosted a five-hour e-waste event where they collected 150 tons of electronic waste (e-waste).

This video was made using time-lapsed images over an hour. Look at all those recyclers!

Wired: 'Where Gadgets Go To Die'

Wired.com has a great photo essay about an electronics recycler in California - including piles of material (above) that gets reused.

The staggering thing is seeing those piles of electronics and realizing it's only the tip of the iceberg.

Wired also posted a manufacturer-specific "how to recycle e-waste" article on their How-To Wiki.

Join us at American 1's Project: Zero Waste

Recycling Jackson is participating in American 1 Federal Credit Union's new Project: Zero Waste day.

Project Zero Waste is a chance for Jackson County residents drop off materials like metal, plastic, paper, Styrofoam, tires, and e-waste to be disposed of in an environmentally-responsible manner. The day will take place Saturday, April 18 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Jackson County Fairgrounds.

Residents will have to pre-register to participate in the event. Most items will be taken free of charge, but some – like TVs, tires, and LP tanks – will carry a minimal charge. Recycling Jackson will take e-waste items. The good news is that we'll take the first TV or monitor you bring for free, and only ask for a donation after the first one. Recycling Jackson is also accepting the usual computers, laptops, batteries, printers, and anything else with a circuit board - except that we're accepting most of it for free.

We're joining Goodwill, Sam’s Club, Northwest Refuse, Emmons Services, OmniSource, Rapid Refill Ink, Dart Container, Pak Mail, and HUCO Kurpinski Recycling – along with the City of Jackson, the Jackson County Fairgrounds, and American 1 – to put this day on.

Plus, Project: Zero Waste kicks off a weekend of events in Jackson that will celebrate Earth Day and environmental stewardship. There’s also a big event at Cascades park on Sunday, April 19 sponsored by the Jackson Outdoor Coalition.

County residents who want to participate can download a registration form online at projectzerowaste.com, or pick one up at any American 1 branch. Registration forms are now due by April 10 (American 1 just extended the deadline). We're asking that people get registered just because of the traffic and timing issues.

A full list of accepted materials is also available at projectzerowaste.com.

60 Minutes follows the e-waste trail

Wow - if you didn't see 60 Minutes special report on e-waste last night, be sure to check it out online. It was a scary and informative piece about what happens to our electronics when we toss them out.

60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley follows one Denver, CO "recycler" that actually sends his e-waste to China to be sold and melted down, even though the recycler claims everything stays in the U.S.

And what happens in China? That's the scariest part of the story: people getting burned, inhaling toxic fumes, and living with the highest concentration of lead in their blood of anywhere on Earth.

Frightening stuff. It's good, though, to remind us that all this gadgetry we buy has to end up somewhere.

[image courtesy of CBS.com]

Number of the week:

21,326

The amount of electronics, in pounds, that we collected at our Oct. 11 e-waste drive.

According to President Steve Noble, that's the second-highest haul ever.

"71% of it was TVs and monitors," he says, "and the rest were PCs and peripherals."

Isn't that something? Thanks again, Jackson, for taking care of your e-waste in a responsible way.

E-waste drive this weekend

That's right, electronic recyclers - it's that time again.

Recycling Jackson and Sam's Club are hosting the Fall E-waste Drive this Saturday, Oct. 11 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Sam's Club in Jackson.

We're taking the usual TVs, computer equipment, stereos, batteries, and fluorescent lights. We ask for a donation for each item you bring, but some items - like CD players and printers - are free.

Check out our e-waste page for all the details.

E-waste: taking responsibility

A thought struck me during our recent e-waste drive on June 21: by recycling, people are taking responsibility for their trash.

I couldn't believe how many CTR monitors (especially Dell monitors) and old TVs that came in. Part of the haul comes from people updating to flat-screen and LCD monitors, but I couldn't help but wonder - if all of these are just coming from Jackson residents, what's happening all over the country?

People loaded these electronic relics into their vehicles, drove them to Sam's Club on a Saturday, and gave us a donation to responsibly recycle them. That's quite a bit of effort, and it happened at least a hundred times on one weekend day.

The same kind of effort goes into everyday recycling. Keeping track of paper, plastic, metal, and glass in your home, seperating it, and taking it to a recycling drop-off site takes work. Recycling isn't for lazy people.

All of that work does a lot of good. And it makes people take responsibility - both in mental effort and in calories burned - for the trash they produce. We take from the earth's supply of natural resources, and instead of tossing it out we reuse it in some other product. We could just bury it. A lot of people do.

Recyclers, however, take a stand and say, "This will not go to waste."

Or at least we say, "We'll take care of it responsibly." Thanks for taking responsibility for your corner of the world. With our successful e-waste drives, it just goes to show that feeling is shared by more and more people.

> Go here for more e-waste drive photos

E-waste drive this Saturday

Join us for our annual summer e-waste drive this Saturday, June 21 at Sam's Club in Jackson from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Head to our e-waste page on our web site for a full list of suggested donations for items. Notice the price drop: because of volume, our e-waste recycler is cutting everyone a deal, which we appreciate.

Recycling Jackson's e-waste drive is happening at the same time the Jackson County Health Department is hosting their Household Hazardous Waste drive (scroll down for their flyer). So a quick trip across town and you can get some responsible cleaning done.

Please bring your computers, TVs, stereos, cellphones, and other electronic junk to Sam's and we'll take care of it for you.

Best Buy wants your e-junk.

Sorry for the posting delay, folks. I've been on vacation - just got back from a driving tour of New England.

Getting ready for our June 21 e-waste drive at Sam's, it was nice to hear that Best Buy is now taking certain e-waste items at its locations. It looks like printer cartridges and cell phones are a go, and appliances they'll even pick up for you, but other things are touch-and-go depending on where you're at. Around here, it looks like the closest you can get is Ann Arbor.

Some items you can upgrade and trade-in for Best Buy gift cards. Not bad.

Had an experience with Best Buy recycling? Let us know in the comments. And look for more info on our summer e-waste drive, coming soon!

Giant number of the month

161,100

That's how many pounds of e-waste we've collected so far. It all adds up to 80.5 tons of electronic junk that won't be burned or buried in some third-world landfill.

Our program kicked off three years ago this spring.

And a note: Our next e-waste drive is June 21 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Sam's Club in Jackson. Look for more info coming soon.

Free e-cycling from the Post Office

Good news: the U.S. Post Office is offering free envelopes for e-cycling in 1,500 office locations nation-wide.

Says their press release:

Customers use free envelopes found in 1,500 Post Offices to mail back inkjet cartridges, PDAs, Blackberries, digital cameras, iPods and MP3 players – without having to pay for postage.

Postage is taken care of by the Clover Technologies Group, an organization that "recycles, remanufactures and remarkets inkjet cartridges, laser cartridges and small electronics."

It sounds like the perfect marriage between a need and someone willing to pay for it: the Clover Group pays to have electronics sent their way, and they repackage them for profit. The Post Office just serves as the middle person.

According to the press release, this is just a pilot program set for 10 areas across the U.S., but "could become a national program this fall if the pilot program proves successful."

Let me tell you: make it easy for people to send their e-waste, and any program could be successful.

No word on whether Jackson County gets to be included in the pilot communities, but we'll let you know.

Apple recycles iPods and cell phones

Apple is making it easy - as easy as one, two, three, in fact - to recycle your used iPods and cellphones.

All it takes is a quick form to fill out, print the free mailing label, and cart it to your neighborhood post office. Simple, eh?

Says Apple:

Apple’s commitment to responsible environmental citizenship includes ensuring that an iPod is properly disposed of at the end of its useful life. The recycling program covers your iPod or any cell phone — regardless of the manufacturer or model. Apple’s recycling program makes it easy for you to help protect the environment.

This after much ballyhoo about Greenpeace's attacks on Apple's lack of green initiative. Take that, Greenpeace!

Apple e-mails a how-to.

Over at Hack This Mac, the writer bought a new Mac Mini and had Apple e-mail him/her this:



Nice Apple - love the headline. Apple also includes shipping barcodes, but the author suggests in-store e-cycling, which is a darned fine idea.

Wired: e-waste is scourge of the earth.

Tony Long, the Luddite, has a great column on e-waste over at Wired.com:

According to the Associated Press, upwards of 500 million tons of electronic trash is generated worldwide every year, and the lion's share of it comes from here. Most of it winds up in U.S. landfills, a cheery thought. What's left is sent overseas to Third World chop shops, where what can be salvaged and resold is. The rest is dumped, and without much care.

Burying old computer components and television monitors in landfills, or dumping them in a Malaysian ditch, is a particularly malignant form of pollution, given the high levels of toxins present in these electronics. On top of that, the workers who deconstruct all this wonderful innovation in Vietnam or India or, especially, China aren’t protected by OSHA regulations. Using crude tools and sometimes no tools, they are expected to extract what can be recycled, leaving them exposed to poisoning and sickness and, who knows, maybe death.

...Some of you may be untroubled by this. If so, shame on you. Your planet is slowly dying from carbon dioxide emissions and the casual dumping of toxic waste. Turning a blind eye to this fact while eagerly consuming every glittery new tech bauble dangled before you is not only pathetic, but suicidal.

Long goes on to say that if tech innovators really think they're cool, they should invent an easy way to recycle e-waste.

Reuse is the best "R"

So says the folks over at Low End Mac.

And it could be true. If items are reused indefinitely, then there's no need for trashing or recycling. They stay out of the waste stream forever.

I'm an Apple Mac geek. I love Macintosh computers, new and old, and currently own and maintain an iBook G4, an original iMac G3 Bondi Blue, an original clamshell iBook G3, and two Mac SE/30s, as well as a Newton MessagePad 110 and video iPod. Thanks to Recycling Jackson, I was also able to restore a strawberry iMac G3 for a friend.

The author of the Low End Mac column, owner and operator of eRecycler Online, noted

We are a growing recycling company in Texas and believe firmly in reuse. Towards that end we run over 100,000 online auctions a year; the proceeds help support the more expensive aspects of responsible recycling.

That's something we've found at our e-waste drives: people turn in perfectly useable computer equipment. "Sometimes things die and can't be fixed, but I'd rather see an old usable Mac given a new home than stripped for recycling," says Dan over at Low End Mac. Thankfully eBay is full of old Mac and PC stuff, and there are ways you can save old electronics like iPods.

Recycling Jackson will gladly take your e-waste. But if there's a chance your computer is still good, give it to someone who needs it, or to someone who can't afford a new computer on their own.

In our use-and-throw-away culture, good things can be said about people who don't automatically hit the "delete" key on their e-waste.


by Dave Lawrence, RJ vice president

Number of the day.

24,725

Pounds of wasted collected at this past weekend's e-waste drive.

That's more than 12 tons of electronic waste that didn't get incinerated, buried, or shipped off to some other continent.

Thanks again, Jackson, for helping us out.

On outdated hardware and e-waste

Sam’s Club in Jackson partnered with Recycling Jackson for an e-waste event earlier in the year. Yesterday, we partnered up again, and kept a whole bunch of electronic waste from going in to a landfill. Or did we?

A lot of the material we saw today came from some large organizations that apparently had this material somewhere. Some of the old relics included dot matrix printers, copiers last used in 1997, some 386 computers, and I even saw some kind of cash register/adding machine that had to be from the 60s.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad it showed up today, and I know it’s going to a better place. I would just be curious where it came from. Organizations updating their hardware is understandable. One donator today said that there will come a time where disposing of a CRT monitor would require “an act of God.” It was funny, but as I saw old, outdated material roll in throughout the day, I wondered how much was left.

What do large businesses, government entities, schools, community organizations, and mom and pop still have laying around? Where is it being stored? One individual commented today when they saw a government sticker on the side of a very full truck, “are my tax dollars going toward storing that old stuff?” I don’t have the answer, but it seems like a logical question.

Back to the question of did we really keep a bunch of electronic waste from going in to a landfill. From the contributions today, the answer is a definite yes. From the items left behind, the answer may be no. Does an event such as today’s increase awareness, or make someone decide their storeroom is due to be emptied?

Will those that decide that today is the day to rid their life of electronic waste do it properly, or just figure their items will be “ok” in the regular garbage?

[by David Milis, RJ board member/Sam's Club employee]

E-waste drive a truckload hit.

Our fall e-waste drive went really, really well.

Jackson County and the Community Action Agency alone could've made this drive a success. Several truckloads of printers, PCs, and monitors made for a lot of exercise.

Sam's helped us out so much - from marketing to the location, and even some pizza for lunch.

Valley City will load the e-waste to Grand Rapids and work their magic. That's a couple of tons of material that will not be burned or buried in a landfill.

Thanks to everyone for their help!

> Head here for more pictures.