Recycle Your Old Computer Parts

Unused, outdated, and otherwise unwanted electronic equipment is taking up a large part of the country's landfills.

Consider the following facts about the electronic machines we throw away:

  • A typical television or computer monitor contains about 5 pounds of lead.

  • Cell phones contain antimony, beryllium, copper, nickel, arsenic, cadmium, lead, and zinc.

  • Millions of toner cartridges from copy machines, fax machines, and printers are dumped into landfills each year, at a rate of about eight per second. And it takes one whole gallon of oil to produce the plastic in a single toner cartridge.

  • Materials in the discarded household batteries that run much of the electronic equipment we use make up 20% of the hazardous waste in our landfills.

The following major manufacturers and retailers have their own convenient recycling programs and can be contacted directly for electronic equipment recycling:

  •  AT&T

  •  Best Buy

  •  Dell

  •  eBay

  •  Hewlett-Packard

  •  Intel

  •  LG

  •  Motorola

  •  Nokia

  •  Office Depot

  •  Samsung

  •  Sony and Sony Ericsson

  •  Sprint

  •  Staples

  •  T-Mobile

  •  Toshiba

  •  Verizon

You can also find many local programs in your area for recycling your unwanted electronic equipment, as well as a number of government sponsored electronic equipment recycling programs.

An alternative to recycling your electronic equipment this way is to donate it to charity.

Electronic equipment that can be recycled includes:

  •  Computers (both desktop PCs and laptops)

  •  Computer monitors

  •  Cell phones, smartphones, PDAs

  •  iPods and other MP3 players

  •  Fax machines

  •  Answering machines

  •  Landline telephones

  •  Copy machines

  •  Toner cartridges

  •  Household batteries

  •  Electronic toys

source hostpapa newsletter.