View the dynamic, moving GOforChange: Greening Baltimore video
Don’t Throw Away, There is No Away
Here is a staggering thought. According to the EPA, in 2005, only 345,000 to 379,000 tons of electronics were recycled out of approximately 1.9 to 2.2 million tons of unwanted electronics. This means that a huge percentage is going to the landfill which will eventually contaminate ground water. There are a whole host of ways to recycle every electronic you have with local, national and international resources. Here in Baltimore my top choice is dropping off your unwanted tech products to CDM-eCycling . I wrote a post about them a couple months ago and I can tell you without a doubt they provide a service that is improving the environment, and helping the local economy. If you find it hard to make the trip over to Washington Blvd. please contact us at info@goforchange.com. I will accept anything that will fit in my Honda Civic and make the trip for you. I have been inspired to do this by seeing Jennifer Baichwal documentary about Edward Burtynsky work called Manufactured Landscapes and reading and watching videos about the struggles of many Chinese that have our e-waste dumped on their soil and sorted under absolutely horrendous conditions. It’s a cycle of production that is destroying the cycle of life. Please, find a responsible e-waste recycler in your state here or visit Basel Action Newtwork website. "BAN is the world’s only organization focused on confronting the global environmental injustice and economic inefficiency of toxic trade and its devastating impacts."
Other things you can do:
1. Find out what companies have a take back program here.
2. Get payed for your electronics by this guy in Denver, CO at BuyMyTronics.com
3. U.S. Staples store will charge you $10, to recycle your used computers, monitors, laptops, and desktop printers, faxes and all–in–ones. Smaller computer accessories such as keyboards, mice, and speakers are accepted at no charge. In addition, you can recycle batteries, PDAs, pagers, digital cameras, and chargers. They will give you $3 in a gift certificate toward new ink for certain ink cartridges. Others, they will just recycle for free.
4. Check back soon for more information
Comment by Carolyn on 12 October 2009:
Julie,
Anything you can do to encourage your readers/followers to set up inkjet recycling programs at work will be appreciated!
The demand for remanufactured inkjets is up because of their lower price, but very few actually get turned in for reuse. Many programs don’t reuse them. They get recycled, which is good but reuse is better!
Our inkjet facility is a U.S. based remanufacturing facility that uses the empty cartridges to make new products and we could really use the empties.
People think these small cartridges that come out of our home printers aren’t really that big of a problem so very few of them actually ever get turned in, but it’s estimated that we’re throwing over 600 million of them in the trash every year. We pay shipping, offer free collection boxes and pay for the ones that can be remanufactured. It’s painless, sustainable and free.
Carolyn