Being Earth-Friendly in the Way You Handle Used Electronics

The whole notion of being earth-friendly in the diverse details of our lives is based on the realization-which we only recently, and rather painfully, have come to-that our planet can only take so many abuses without hitting back. It's not just that we need to take care of our planet for the planet's sake; it's our own skin we also need to try to save! In full knowledge of this, it becomes very important for us to reconsider many of our actions and omissions in our day to day lives-such as regarding the way we handle used electronics goods like used laptops (or cell phones, or any electronic product for that matter).

So, most people ask themselves: "What is it that I might be doing wrong when I dispose of my used electronics?" Unfortunately, the response is far too often "everything." For example, if you're someone that simply heaves such goods into the trash can as if they were no different from any other kind of waste that you might expect to find in a landfill or a dump across the country or abroad-well then in that case you're definitely doing a lot of harm, to the planet and to the health of other human beings. How so? Well, because the materials found inside each used laptop, cell phone or other electronic device are of a highly toxic nature in many cases (cadmium, lead, zinc, chlorides, and much more); when these materials make their way into the soil and/or the ground water of a given location, they harm people in the vicinity and they harm the entire ecosystem of the area.

Too often these sites are located in some part of the developing/third world-and as a result the issue can be somewhat 'out of sight, out of mind' for us here in the US. Nonetheless, we owe it to ourselves as well as the rest of humanity and the planet itself to not let out of sight become out of mind on this matter. The very volume and magnitude of the issue ought to prevent us from letting that happen: here in the US alone, several millions of tons of electronics waste (e-waste) are produced every year, far too much of it ending up in overseas open-air landfills that are extremely hazardous.

Keeping these used items out of those landfills (wherever they are in the world-and we do have our own fair share here in the United States) isn't that complicated of a matter: it's just about knowing how to recycle. As with so many things we turn into waste, a better solution exists in the form of recycling. Of course, used electronics can't just be recycled along with your plastic and glass bottles or cardboard; there are special though nonetheless accessible ways for doing so, and a quick online search for how to do so ought to yield several results for your immediate area. You'll even find that, more than recycling, you can resell those used items and actually get cash value out of them!