As the subject of electronic recycling is very large, we're going to narrow this discussion to include Southold and Riverhead Towns' treatment of residential waste PCs and monitors. We will save our discussion of proper disposal of cell phones, TVs, microwaves, toner cartridges and batteries for a later time. Corporate electronic waste disposal also deserves a deeper look and we will search out the local businesses which are making an effort to make a difference by disposing of their many PCs and monitors properly.
It's 2009, and as far as electronic recycling is concerned, we're only slightly further ahead of where we were 15 years ago. A majority of American households now have more than one PC, and with ONE BILLION computers having been sold around the world by 2002 (Gartner Dataquest) and another BILLION at work today, each having an approximate lifespan of 3 years, they're turning to waste at a mind-boggling rate. We simply have to be much more conscientious about our disposal habits starting right now.
Keep in mind that 3-year-old PC may still be of some value to a non-profit organization of your choice—but by the time it reaches 5 years of age, it will be more of a liability than an asset to an organization. So let's focus on unusable PCs and the big, glass, CRT (glass screen) monitors that can’t even be used as boat anchors. Where do they all go? There are plenty of them going to the end of the driveway in residential settings, although many townships across the U.S. are working at un-curbing the flow going to the landfill.
Lead, heavy metals (selenium, chromium, etc.), silicon, PVC and a lot more are incorporated in the motherboard, power supply and various drives in a PC. If they are relegated to the landfill, the toxic metals leach out into the soil and find their way into the aquifer or run off into the bays, rivers or oceans.
When properly recycled, they are either shredded so that the components containing the desirable metals can be pulled out, or they are sent overseas (Pakistan, India, etc.) for people to unsolder the components by hand. (Some years ago these basic components--capacitors, transistors, etc.--were actually found being resold as new to computer manufacturers, leading to a lot of computer failures in the field and a high cost to the manufacturers in the way of customer service calls and parts replacements.)
If you have a Dell, HP, Gateway or Toshiba PC, their websites provide the following:
- Dell: If you opt for the free recycling service upon purchasing a new Dell, they will take back ANY old PC and monitor. If you simply want to recycle a Dell PC for free, go to http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/recycling/en/product_recycle and follow the instructions.
- HP: Go to https://h20212.www2.hp.com/recycle/ and you will find that they will take back ANY PC and/or monitor if you ship them at your expense.
- Gateway: Go to http://gateway.eztradein.com/gateway/ to see how much they will offer for your old PC (but no CRT monitors) and to where to ship it at your expense
- Toshiba: Has a tab on their homepage titled “Social Responsibility” which brings you to 50 more links to show their community efforts (old PC collection day, etc.) and actually suggests that we do an E-waste recycling event locally ourselves from time to time. For your own PC, go to http://explore.toshiba.com/innovation-lab/green and then find that this link redirects to http://toshiba.eztradein.com/toshiba, very much like the Gateway link.
- Acer: No reference to any recycling in either the site or their search mechanism.
So what about a person who has the “worthless” 5-year-old PC and CRT (glass screen) monitor, can’t donate it, and doesn’t want to pay to ship it to New Hampshire but wants to dispose of it safely?
If you are a resident of Southold, you can take it to the Transfer Station (town dump).
According to the Town's Waste Management page: Electronic Waste (E-Waste) is now accepted at the Transfer Station daily during normal business hours. Residents may now dispose of their used computers, TVs, stereos, and other electronic trash safely on any regular business day, at no charge. This service is for Southold Town residents ONLY (proof of residency is required).
If you are a resident of Riverhead, you have two choices:
The Town of Riverhead has a S.T.O.P. (Stop Throwing Out Pollutants) program during which times (May 30th and Oct 10th, 2009) they will take e-Waste.
If you don’t want to wait until spring you can and don’t mind making the trek to e-Solutions’ (Nick Gerbino, owner) facility at 200 Engineers Road in Hauppauge, they will take PCs and servers free of charge. They are charging only 20 cents per pound for monitors and TVs (about $6.00 for a 15” CRT) in order to maintain a viable commercial enterprise. Here they actually dismantle, shred, test and resell various parts (among other data destruction services) and are not part of the dumping of boatloads of junk on the Third World at all.
It’s hard being conscientious, but we also need to make sure that our elected officials and Town Departments are also working toward solving this huge waste problem at a grassroots level.
For a more in-depth look at this subject, see:
http://earth911.com/http://www.eiae.org/ the Electronic Industries Alliance's Consumer Education InitiativeeRecycle.org
http://www.nrc-recycle.org/ the NationalRecyclingCoalition
http://www.dec.ny.gov/ the New York State environmental agency
http://www.iaer.org/search/iaersearch.cfm the International Association of Electronics Recyclers
http://pages.ebay.com/rethink/ the Rethink Initiative effort
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