Electronics Recycling Addresses Growing U.S. Waste Problem

Mark Hall and Lisa Ward walk amid stacks of computers, fax machines and monitors piled in rows 10 feet high. The scene looks like an electronics morgue, brimming with machines that in the 1990s were considered to be on the leading edge of technology but now seem antiquated. Soon, however, they will be resurrected, some as refurbished computers for disadvantaged families, others as recycled glass, metal and plastic.

Nothing will be wasted.

Ward and Hall represent Keep It Green, an Alexandria, Va.-based computer-recycling program that targets what has become a growing monster in the American waste stream: e-waste, also known as hazardous materials contained within obsolete electronics.

Technology, long held up as a panacea for environmental ills, is adding new fuel to a throwaway society. The problem of e-waste stems from the mindset in affluent countries, including the United States, that electronics are disposable. Factors such as costly replacement batteries and the quickening pace with which new models are introduced encourage consumers to justify trashing their obsolete computers, cell phones, personal digital assistants, et cetera, in favor of new models.

According to Dale Kemery, spokesman for the Environmental Protection Agency, e-waste is estimated to comprise between 1 and 4 percent of America's solid waste stream - a relatively small percentage that, due to materials like mercury, lead, cadmium and arsenic contained within electronics, could add up to a major public health issue. Several components of e-waste fall under the EPA's category of persistent bioaccumulative toxins, or PBTs, which accumulate and eventually concentrate in fatty tissue. Sitting atop the food chain, humans are especially susceptible to the myriad health problems - including nervous system damage, reproductive and developmental problems and cancer - that can result from exposure to PBTs.

Fortunately, the problem of e-waste is avoidable. Many electronics can be recycled, and several organizations and businesses are happy to take them.