How to control and recycle your gadgets

If you look around your house, all you will see is a bunch of wires, batteries, CDs and usb drives. A lot of these are lying there, unusable. There is so much of such waste lying around that you don’t know what to do with it. Most of us just toss it out in the garbage, not really caring about where all the toxic electronic stuff goes eventually. Thus it is time to make a conscious effort to reduce the amount of e-waste that we generate.

Why should e-waste be recycled?

Reusing and recycling e-waste is not just about reusing electronic items. It helps to stop toxic substances from contaminating the landfill. It allows precious materials to be recovered and reused. Also, it decreases the waste and lowers the need for mining of raw materials for resources.

When secondary raw materials are created, it takes a drastically low amount of energy as compared to creating primary raw materials. Recycling steel as secondary material uses 74 per cent less energy than creating primary raw steel. Recycling aluminum takes 95 per cent less energy. It is a win-win situation in all.

What are the implications of recycling e-waste?

Here are some statistics that show the enormous benefit to our natural resources as a result of recycling electronic waste matter.

If one million laptops are recycled, then the energy saved is equal to the amount of energy used by over 3.500 homes in the US annually.

For every one million cellphones that are recycled, 35,000 pounds of copper, 75 gold pounds, 772 silver pounds and 33 pounds of palladium can be regained. These are all precious and semi-precious metals. With just a couple of examples, it is easy to gauge the vital importance of recycling our electronics.

Donate your e-waste for recycling

If you have electronic components that are not being used or need repair, then donate these items so that other people are able to use it. This way, you can also get some tax deductions which can be near the amount of the money you would get had you tried to sell it. If your items are already rendered unusable, then donate them on websites like FreeCycle who have proper methods of handling such things.

Always find out the local options for recycling. There are always government regulated programs that you can use. Wherever you live, find out the local ways of recycling e-waste and make sure to use it and spread awareness among your family, friends, colleagues and other members of your neighborhood and community.

Trade it in

There’s more you can do with your dead cellphone and laptop than tossing it into the garbage. Many stores now have a buy-back program. While making a new purchase, you can also sell off your old equipment in return for store credit or gift cards. These stores then turn the equipment back to the manufacturers who reuse and/or recycle the gadgets for parts and components.

Due to evolving lifestyles, methods of recycling also need to evolve to keep up with the changing times. Human beings have recycled and reused things for thousands of years. With the creation and advent of technology, one needs to find newer and safer ways to deal with these new kinds of waste that we are generating. Recycling e-waste not only saves natural resources, it leaves the environment clean and free from toxic materials and substances, and it also conserves energy, and removes reusable substances from landfills.