Electronics Recycling Easier on America Recycles Day 2007

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says Americans throw out two million tons of e-waste each year. These electronic devices contain hazardous materials such as mercury, cadmium, lead and brominated flame retardants.

"Every day in the United States, an estimated 133,000 computers are discarded and not recycled or reused, which causes mounting trash and toxicity in landfills," said Kate Krebs, executive director of the National Recycling Coalition that coordinates America Recycles Day on November 15 each year.

Now in its 10th year, America Recycles Day is the only nationally recognized day set aside to encourage Americans to recycle and to buy recycled products.

"The recycling of electronic products at their end of life fuels economic activity, creates jobs and diverts hazardous materials from landfills," said Krebs.

The number of regional local e-waste recycling opportunities is growing. In the Seattle-Tacoma area, for instance, a group of retailers, repair shops, non-profit organizations, waste haulers and recyclers has formed the Take it Back Network to offer convenient options for recycling products that contain toxic or hazardous materials.

Still, only 23 percent of respondents to an October national survey told interviewers that they recycle old or unused electronic items., while 41 percent said they either throw unwanted consumer electronics in the trash or do not dispose of them at all.

Commissioned by the office products retail chain Staples, the survey was conducted by Kelton Research, which polled 1,000 American adults via an online survey in October. The overall margin of error is +/- 3.1 percentage points.

E-waste is easier to recycle this year. (Photo courtesy King County)

"Between 2000 and 2007, an estimated 500 million computers became obsolete in the U.S.," said Mark Buckley, vice president of environmental affairs at Staples. "Providing options for technology recycling is an important way that Staples makes it easy to make a difference for the environment."

The chain accepts all brands of items, regardless of whether or not they were purchased at Staples, and recycles them for a $10 fee. Free in-store recycling is offered for cell phones, PDAs, pagers, digital cameras, chargers and rechargeable batteries. They are sent to Collective Good, which refurbishes products where feasible or recycles them and donates a portion of the proceeds to charity.

Not to be outdone, Office Depot is celebrating America Recycles Day this year by focusing on its growing array of 3,500 green products and services, while offering customers more ways to recycle in the workplace.

Office Depot offers a new nationwide Tech Recycling Service for a small fee, plus recyling of ink and toner cartridges, batteries and cell phones.

"Office Depot's environmental strategy is structured around a vision to increasingly buy green, be green and sell green," said Yalmaz Siddiqui, environmental strategy advisor for Office Depot. "It's important that we continually improve Office Depot's own sustainability as well as that of our suppliers and customers. The best way to accomplish this is by providing our stakeholders with innovative products and services that are also green."

By recycling a landmark five pound toner cartridge from a Xerox multifunction system, Xerox Corporation announced Friday that the company has diverted more than two billion pounds of electronic waste from landfills around the world.

"If that amount of waste were loaded into garbage trucks, it would fill more than 160,000 trucks, stretching more than 1,000 miles, from Seattle to the Mexican border," said Patricia Calkins, Xerox vice president, Environment, Health and Safety.

Launched in 1991, Xerox's environmental program achieved the milestone by waste avoidance in two areas: reuse and recycling in imaging supplies and product take-back and recycling and parts reuse.

Calkins says Xerox's experience with reuse, recycling and remanufacturing has not only kept waste out of landfills, but saved the company more than $2 billion as it did so.

To find out more about America Recycles Day, including events in your neighborhood, visit the National Recycling Coalition at: http://www.nrc-recycle.org/americarecycles.aspx

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2007. All rights reserved.