Holiday Electronic Gifts Increase Yearly, Increasing the EWaste Dilemma

For many towns and cities across the United States, e-Waste is becoming an increasingly growing concern. Solid Waste Programs in many regions simply do not have the facilities and capability to properly dispose of the mountains of used electronics we throw away every year.  

This mountain of eWaste engorges with every Christmas and Holiday season as the newest electronics are often the gift of choice, replacing our older gadgets from last year.

The most purchased electronics for 2010 were:

• Smaller Laptops (such as netbooks)
• Smartphones (iPhone leading in sales)
• Tablets (iPad leading in sales
• HDTVs
• Digital Cameras
• MP3s players
• Video Game Consoles (Xbox 360 and PS3 top sold systems)

Many of these products produce a new updated version every year, enticing us to regularly update and providing us with the dilemma of how to dispose of our old electronic equipment. This contributes to the fact that electronic waste is already one of the fastest growing segments of municipal waste in the world, and is increasing at 3 times the rate of all other waste.

All electronics are composed of environmentally and health hazardous chemicals that can cause people to become ill not only by direct contact but also through the after-affects of improper disposal and the resulting effect on our surrounding environment. Electronics can contain lead, chromium, cadmium, mercury, beryllium, nickel, zinc and Brominated flame retardants, all which can cause disastrous effects when leached into our ecosystem. This is the result when our electronics become buried in landfills and burned in incinerators.

Proper disposal of electronic waste helps keep our environment and ourselves healthy. These toxic chemicals and heavy metals become safely contained where they can’t do harm and often can be recycled for reuse.