Every year on April 22, people across the globe celebrate Earth Day! It is a day held to promote environmental awareness and sustainability practices. Here at the Division of Information Technology, we celebrate by focusing our efforts on eliminating e-waste.

What is e-waste?

E-waste, short for electronic waste, is the trash generated from surplus electronic products at the end of their useful life. Some devices that commonly end up as e-waste are cell phones, computers, televisions, monitors, VCRs, stereos, fax machines and printers. All of these can be recycled.

Why is e-waste recycling important?

Approximately 60% of e-waste in developing countries ends up in landfills. Americans alone produce 3.4 tons of e-waste every year. For example, in the US, approximately 265,900,000 people own a smartphone. The average amount of time a person keeps their smartphone before it's broken, lost, stolen or upgraded is 18 months. That's a lot of precious materials going to waste!

The majority of electronic devices contain valuable materials that can be recycled and remanufactured into new products. Unfortunately, these devices also contain toxic chemicals like arsenic and poly-brominated flame retardant as well as heavy metals such as mercury, lead and lithium. Without proper precaution, these materials can pollute the air when burned and contaminate the groundwater sources when thrown into landfills.

Where can I recycle my e-waste?

On April 24th from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., Twin Oaks Landfill is hosting a household hazardous waste collection event. They accept computers, laptops, batteries and TV stereo equipment.

Can't make it on the 24th? Best Buy located at 805 South Texas Ave and Bryan Iron & Metal Co. located at 2011 W. Hwy 21 accept e-waste all year long.

Remember to wipe all data off of your devices before turning them in! This will protect you in the instance that your old device falls into the wrong hands.