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Let's face it, we are technology junkies.  We love our gadgets and are continually upgrading and adding new electronic items to our lives.  Because of this love of all things electronic, e-waste is the fastest growing part of the waste stream. Every year, an estimated 400 million units of obsolete electronics are scrapped.

New technology is coming out all the time, making our "old" equipment quickly obsolete.  Another factor is that some electronic products simply don't hold up and are cheaper to replace than to fix.  To further the problem, the digital TV conversion took place earlier this year.  Instead of converting old TVs, many people decided to upgrade to newer models.

Americans got rid of more than 26 million televisions and 205 million computer products in 2007.   Add cell phones, MP3 players, video games, handheld games, and all of the other gadgets we use and the numbers are staggering at over 3 million tons.  Over 86% of this electric waste was sent to landfills.  Instead of sending your unwanted electronics to the landfill, consider donating or recycling them.

Recycling electronics is important because of the huge volume of these materials filling up our landfills.  More importantly, the highly toxic chemicals from components of e-waste items leech into our soil and groundwater. Old TVs for example have many toxic chemicals and up to 8 lbs of lead.

Our air quality is also impacted.  According to the EPA, recycling 1 million desktop computers prevents the release of greenhouse gases equivalent to the annual emissions of over 17,000 passenger cars.

The US exports enough e-waste each year to fill 5126 shipping containers (40 ft x 8.5 ft).  If you stacked them up, they'd reach 8 miles high - higher than Mt Everest.

Our local high school just held an electronics recycling event.  All you had to do was drop off your unwanted electronics and they had arranged to have them safely recycled.