Did you know that Floridians throw away 8 pounds of garbage per day? That is double the national average. This is not something to be proud of but it leaves a lot of room for improvement!
Many times when I frequent my housing facility’s dumpster, a computer will be sitting by the side. Does someone think that another resident will take care of properly disposing of it? Think again – it probably will end up in the landfill and will remain there for years. What a waste!
Electronic products are made from valuable materials, including metals, plastics, and glass, all of which require energy to mine and manufacture. Donating or recycling consumer electronics conserves our natural resources. Recycling one million laptops saves the energy equivalent to the electricity used by more than 3,500 homes in the U.S. in a year. For every one million cell phones we recycle, 35,000 pounds of copper, 772 pounds of silver, 75 pounds of gold, and 33 pounds of palladium can be recovered.
Before you donate or recycle your used electronics, do the following:
- Consider your purchase of a new device – could you upgrade the hardware or software instead of buying a brand new one?
- Delete all personal information.
- Remove any batteries; they may need to be recycled separately.
And now the question is where to donate or recycle items? Many manufacturers and retailers offer several options to donate or recycle electronics. Go to www2.epa.gov/recycle/electronics-donation-and-recycling for instructions offered by many companies on where/how you can recycle mobile devices, personal computers, and even televisions.
Think about it…..with just a little more effort, another item can be saved from our already overloaded landfills. You can be a part of the solution for cutting down on waste in Florida.
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