No More Electronics in the Landfill

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These days, you must think twice before you toss
your old electronics in the trash can. You may
not know it but consumer electronics are full of
dangerous heavy metals that don't need to wind up
in landfills. In landfills these heavy metals
will leach into the soil and eventually make it
into our water supply. From there it will get
into our drinking water and cause health
problems. Chicago electronics recycling is born
of the growing concern that the pace of
technological innovation has continued to
increase and people are getting rid of their
electronics faster now than ever before as
technological advancements make better
electronics available faster.
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At the moment it is estimated that 70 of all
dangerous heavy metals in landfills come from
consumer electronic waste even though they only
make up 2-3 of our total trash and these numbers
are projected to continue rising. Heavy metals
aren't the only environmental problem caused by
the massive amounts of consumer electronic waste
piling up in landfills. Most consumer electronic
waste also contains a lot of plastic and due to
the high temperatures these plastic casing can be
exposed to they generally have a flame retardant
additive in them. This is a chemical that is
mixed into the plastic resin during production
that increases the melting and burning point of
the plastic.
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The problem also expands beyond our local
landfills in the US. The same heavy metals that
make consumer electronic waste harmful in
landfills makes them valuable to countries that
need raw materials in some developing countries.
The problem however, is that when electronic
waste is shipped to these areas it is shipped in
bulk. Not all of the electronics shipped can
actually be recycled at the plants they are sent
to overseas. This leads to toxic electronic waste
dumps building up in rural areas of such
countries near these facilities. Furthermore,
these countries don't have the environmental
regulations or inspections in place to do
anything about these toxic dumps of electronic
waste and they pose a serious threat to the local
communities in these regions.
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In most states the problem has gotten serious
enough to prompt a response from the state
governments. Several legislatures have recently
passed a measure that requires computer
manufactures selling products in their
jurisdictions to provide free electronics
recycling for old and broken computers. This will
help decrease the amount of electronic waste in
local landfills but is by no means an adequate
solution to the problem. The law does nothing to
address the growing problem of TVs in landfills
sense it doesn't require TV recycling of the many
manufactures to provide free electronics
recycling services. In the absence of easy TV
recycling, a lot of these TVs are ending up in
landfills where they will pollute the soil and
ground water.
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www.recyclecomputerchicago.com