Tips for Recycling Computers, Phones and Other E-waste Successfully

 

It happens to all of us, when the computer, smartphone, or another electronic device no longer meets our needs. Making your electronics last as long as possible is the most effective way to lower the carbon footprint of your digital life. If you can’t repair or upgrade it, repurpose it, sell it, trade it in, or even give it away — it’s time to consider your e-waste recycling options.

More than half of the total carbon footprint of your computer is generated when it is manufactured and 72% of a phone’s CO2 bill is due to the refining of raw materials, manufacturing, and shipping. According to the European Environmental Bureau, a smartphone would need to be used for between 25 and 232 years to completely offset its manufacturing carbon footprint. In recent years, consumers have drastically extended the average time between phone upgrades from 2.74 years in 2017 to 3.17 years in 2020. But only 17.4% of 53.6 million tons of old phones, computers, and other electronics are recycled annually.

Electronics makers and hobbyists are also offering new programs that let you repurpose a computer, tablet, iPhone, or Galaxy smartphone to use it for a different function, such as a home camera or alarm clock. But the inevitable day will come when the hardware will no longer support the latest software and no longer meets your needs — or simply no longer works. When that happens, this quick guide provides you options and offers tips to help you responsibly recycle your e-waste. Always be sure to follow these steps to remove your data and prepare your device for recycling.

Except for Monitors, e-Waste Recycling Should Be Free or Earn You Trade-in Credit

As a rule, you shouldn’t have to pay for recycling computers and smartphones, because the gold, silver, palladium, and other metals and components are worth a considerable amount of money — one expert estimates that $12 billion in unrecycled electronics are tossed in landfills annually. With the exception of flatscreen and CRT displays and TVs — which you can expect to pay a modest per-item fee ($10-$30-ish) to recycle because they require special handling — your e-waste recycling should be free.

If you are ready to upgrade, some stores and most manufacturers offer trade-in credit toward a new phone. Charities like Goodwill will also give you charitable donation receipts for your tax returns.

Many vendors will even cover shipping costs in case you can’t find a convenient local drop-off — although you’ll need to provide and do the packaging. For example:

• Dell: Dell’s recycling options include their Mail-back Recycling Program for Dell products.
• HP: HP offers free recycling for all brands of home office equipment through their partnerships with Staples and FedEx in the U.S. You can drop your equipment at a Staples near you or get a FedEx shipping and recycling voucher.
• Samsung: The Korean electronics giant recycles its phones and PCs for free via mail, through a network of partners, or at its Samsung Experience Stores.
• Apple: iPhones, Macs, and Apple TV devices can be recycled in more than 100 countries, including drop-off programs at Apple Stores.
• Microsoft: The maker of Windows will recycle any device it manufactured that is not eligible for upgrade credit. The program is operated by a partner, CExchange, and provides free shipping for a wide range of devices submitted to its trade-in program.
• Google: In addition to providing ubiquitous search services, Google makes dozens of electronics products, from Chromebooks to smart thermostats and smart speakers. The company will provide a free shipping label through its recycling program partner, RLG Americas.

Why Recycle Computers and Smartphones (and Other E-waste) Responsibly

There are many reasons to keep computers and smartphones out of the garbage stream, including:

• They contain toxic metals that harm the environment/ecosystem.
• These toxic metals can be dangerous to people overseas — often children or prisoners — who may be picking through and disassembling these items. Be sure to use a recycling program certified by R2 or e-Stewards standards to prevent your electronics from being dumped in a low-income country.
• In many states and localities, it’s illegal to put consumer electronics in your trash.
• E-waste recycling recovers useful materials and saves energy.

Identifying Responsible E-cyclers for Your Computers and Smartphones

Fortunately, you don’t have to figure out what constitutes responsible e-waste recycling or research whether a given e-waste recycler is meeting those requirements. That’s been done. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognizes two accredited certification standards regarding responsible electronics recycling:

• The R2 (Responsible Recycling) Recycling Standards
• The e-Stewards Standard for Responsible Recycling and Reuse of Electronic Equipment

If an e-waste recycling location displays certification from one of these organizations, that should be enough to satisfy your concerns that your e-waste will be handled correctly. In particular, these programs prohibit the exporting of e-waste to low-income countries, where little or no oversight of recycling, environmental, or worker safety exists.

If the recycler offers another e-cycling certification or no information, look for an R2 or e-Stewards program instead.

Finding a Place That Accepts Your To-Be-Recycled Devices

As a consumer, you aren’t actually bringing your old computers and smartphones to the big room where the recycling happens — you need to deliver your e-waste to a collection point. You can start at the Earth911 Recycling Database.

Which ones are best for you depends on various factors, including:

• Convenience. How far do you have to drive and are they on any of your regular “chore routes”? (See 5 Tips to Make Recycling a Part of Your Daily Routine.)
• How many items you have. Some locations may only accept a limited number of items per visit, perhaps half a dozen, or even just three. Some locations may require you to make a purchase to deposit an item.
• Hours and availability. Recycling centers often have more limited hours than stores. Additionally, your recycling center may be by-appointment-only, either due to COVID restrictions (like my town’s currently is) or other reasons.

Stores and Manufacturers: Drop off, Mail in, or Schedule a Pickup

Many stores — particularly chains that sell consumer electronics like Best Buy and Staples (but not Costco, which discontinued its recycling program) — offer e-cycling for your computers, smartphones, and other e-waste.

Depending on the organization, location, and the device you want to recycle, your options will range from drop-off to mail-in or arrange for pick-up.

Here are a few retail options available in many regions of the U.S.:

• Best Buy: “You can recycle up to three items per household per day (see categories below for state-specific info, and different limitations on TVs, computer monitors and laptops).”
• Goodwill: Through a partnership with Dell ReConnect, Goodwill accepts computers and other electronics for recycling at over 2,000 Goodwill locations across the U.S.
• Staples: Free electronics recycling for many items. (According to the Staples website, as of early May 2021, it temporarily suspended the e-waste recycling program as part of COVID precautions.)

Have a phone to recycle? Wireless carriers, such as AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile, also offer trade-in programs.

Is there still some life left in your laptop or iPad? Check out 5 Ways To Reuse an Old Laptop and 10 Ways To Reuse an Old iPad.

What a great article, easy to follow and very interesting. I should imagine that there are places like the ones in the USA here in Spain and of course in the United Kingdom.  I expect that the scandinavian countries are well ahead of this also.

When I need to dispose of any of the above items and it really is not possible to save them I take them along to our recycling plant on the Industrial estate in Ciutadella who dispose of them properly.

The blog song for today is: "Telephone Line" by ELO

TTFN

Understanding Where Garbage Goes - A report from Earth911

Understanding Where Garbage Goes

ByGemma Alexander

Dec 23, 2021 waste-series, where-garbage-goes

Humans create a lot of waste, but when you throw something away, how much do you know about where it goes or how it’s handled? This article is the first in a five-part series that explores what happens to the tons of materials we discard.

We call it many things: garbage, trash, rubbish, waste. The recycling industry calls it “municipal solid waste,” or MSW. All these words mean “things we throw away.”

For a few decades, Americans really could just throw away whatever they didn’t want without ever thinking about it again. But as we are finally learning, there is no such place as “away.” Even the most efficient household still generates some waste, and all that garbage has to go somewhere.

Where does that garbage go?

Multiple Streams

Answering that question is surprisingly tricky, and can involve a combination of scientific studies and compilation of hauler data. The most recent EPA data available is from 2018.

Recycling rates vary widely throughout the country. In the United States, 32.1% of the MSW was recycled (including composting in 2018. The remaining 67.9% was disposed of as garbage.

In the U.S., there are two primary methods of garbage disposal — landfilling and incineration. Each method has a significant long-term impact on the environment.

Landfill Disposal

Landfilling is more common by far, though we don’t have recent data to understand how changes in the recycling industry — such as China’s ban on contaminated recyclables imports — have affected disposal rates or methods. In 2018, 50% of MSW was sent to landfills. Today that number is probably higher, as many communities have reduced or eliminated their recycling programs since China changed its policy at the beginning of 2018.

The total volume of U.S. recycling revenue in the U.S. has declined by as much as $10 billion since the ban went into effect, falling from $117 billion in 2017 to nearly $110 billion in 2019, according to the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries. The decline is due to the falling price of commodities such as glass and plastic.

Although the majority of U.S. cities and towns resort to landfilling, there is a wide range of practices that can fall under the term. Technically, a landfill is not the same thing as a dump. A landfill isolates waste from the environment until it is safe. Landfills must meet the criteria for hydrogeological separation of waste and for the long-term management and restoration of the site. Any waste site that does not meet these criteria is a dump.

Dumps proliferated in the U.S. throughout the mid-20^th century. The Solid Waste Disposal Act of 1965 created a federal office to manage trash, and by the mid-1970s, states had established waste management regulations. Today, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) creates the framework for the proper management of all types of solid waste. Subtitle D of RCRA establishes the stringent design, operation, and closure requirements for modern landfills.

Incineration

Incineration disposes only of 11.8% of the country’s MSW. Like landfilling, the process has changed a lot over time, so that the environmental impacts can vary widely depending on the local system. The earliest incinerators were just large furnaces that reduced the volume of waste before sending ashes and incompletely burned waste to a dump. The 1970 Clean Air Act (CAA) banned the uncontrolled burning of MSW and placed restrictions on particulate emissions, requiring existing incinerators to install new technology or cease operations.

Today, air quality standards require much cleaner emissions from the combustion of MSW, and heat released from burning is usually used to produce electricity. The waste management industry usually calls incineration “waste-to-energy,” or WTE, to emphasize how much this method of disposal has evolved from 20^th-century practices.

Emerging Technology

In time, numerous promising technologies may replace landfilling and WTE. Among these are waste conversion technologies like pyrolysis, gasification, depolymerization, and anaerobic digestion. However, none of these or other emerging technologies can handle the entire MSW-stream for whole communities — yet.

Do you know where your garbage goes?

What’s Best?

People have very strong feelings about garbage disposal methods, but none of them are without problems. Each landfill takes up a lot of space — up to 1,600 acres — that could be put to better use. Urbanization and unsuitable soil conditions make siting a new landfill impossible in many regions. There is a risk that landfills active today could develop leaks in the future, and thousands of old landfills continue to leach chemicals into nearby soils. Older and even many newer landfills release landfill gas, the third-largest source of human-related methane emissions in the United States.

Despite system improvements, incineration still has drawbacks, too. Not all byproducts of combustion are as beneficial as electricity. From 15% to 25% (by weight) of the MSW burned remains are ash. Bottom ash goes to the landfill. Fly ash can be recycled as an ingredient in concrete but is also a hazardous material that contains heavy metals and other pollutants. WTE facilities also tend to be more expensive to operate than landfills.

Whether landfilling or WTE makes more sense for a community depends on the resources and eco-vulnerabilities of the location. The availability of hydrogeologically suitable space for a landfill is a key factor. Increasingly, communities are finding that they lack the resources to dispose of their own waste and must contract with a remote facility. In those cases, the environmental and cost impacts of transportation complicate disposal decisions.

Where Does Your Garbage Go?

Some local governments collect and dispose garbage themselves. More often, they contract with private companies for all or part of the process. For example, Seattle, Washington, contracts with two private companies to collect MSW from homes. Those companies take waste to city-operated transfer facilities that compact it into shipping containers. The containers go to an intermodal transfer facility operated by a railroad company. There, they load the containers onto trains that deliver the waste to a privately-owned landfill in Oregon.

To trace your own waste, start with your city or county’s website. You might find your local solid waste management plan. This plan should describe in detail the flow of waste from curbside pickup to final disposal. If your local waste utility does not post that information online, you can call the number on your garbage bill. Garbage may be included in the same bill as water and sewer or billed separately. The bill may come from your city or the garbage hauler. Either way, customer service should be able to tell you where your garbage goes after it leaves your house. Garbage never goes away, but you might be surprised to find out how far it travels.

I have looked into this here on Menorca, and it seems that all our rubbish along with recycled stuff goes to the same place near Mahon.  I have done a blog or two on this subject and tried to arrange a visit to the plant, this was before the current situation.

Still, after all the campaigns from various agencies, people still seem reluctant to recycle, or even cut down on their plastic comsumption, it is very annoying.   As I have mentioned before,numerous times, education is the key but trying to change old ways is difficult, especially here on Menorca where a lot of the people here seem to think it is not their job to dispose of their rubbish properly.  I find that attitude absolutely ridiculous but they will not change their minds.

The people with the most time on their hands are the ones who could do more to cut down on waste, but they are also the ones who are stuck in who knows what century and steadfastly refuse to change or take a few extra steps to the recylcing bins.  

The blog song for today is: " Dancing Days" by Led Zeppelin.

TTFN

 

Un mensaje de Greenpeace Espana 2022

Un año en el que hemos visto de cerca la peor cara del cambio climático sin que los gobiernos ni la COP26 hayan dado los pasos suficientes para ponerle freno. 

Hemos recibido un “código rojo para la humanidad” por parte de la comunidad científica, que ha sido de nuevo ignorada a la hora de avanzar en el abandono real de los combustibles fósiles en la cumbre de Glasgow. Hemos visto una Ley nacional de cambio climático demasiado débil y hemos sido testigos de espantosos episodios que agravan la pérdida de biodiversidad. Más de lo mismo, este no es el camino.

2021 no ha sido el mejor año para el planeta. Pero en Greenpeace no hemos bajado los brazos gracias a que contamos contigo. Por eso queremos que veas este vídeo. Tu compromiso lo ha hecho posible >>

En lo positivo, ha aumentado la oposición a la ganadería industrial con las primeras moratorias regionales y denegaciones de permisos para futuras macrogranjas.   Se ha suspendido la ampliación del aeropuerto de Barcelona-El Prat gracias a la presión ecologista y social.   La energía eólica ha superado a la nuclear y lidera la generación de electricidad en España por primera vez desde 2013.   Los litigios climáticos contra los gobiernos toman fuerza en los tribunales de distintos países con sentencias históricas que permiten hacernos soñar que por fin se va a actuar contra el cambio climático.   El Gobierno español va a tener que actuar para evitar la contaminación del agua, después de que la Comisión Europea haya llevado a España ante el Tribunal de Justicia de la UE por incumplimiento de la Directiva de Nitratos.   La Audiencia Nacional ha dictado sentencia a favor de Greenpeace y abierto la puerta para que la planta de celulosa de Ence deje de contaminar la ría de Pontevedra.  Aunque la situación actual de la pandemia no permita ser muy optimista, si hemos sido capaces de todo esto en este difícil 2021, ¡imagina todo lo que podemos hacer juntos en 2022!

Entre nuestras grandes prioridades va a estar trabajar sin descanso para conseguir la firma de un Tratado Global de los Océanos en Naciones Unidas, y que el dinero de los fondos europeos se utilice para una verdadera recuperación justa y verde dejando de lado las falsas soluciones y el greenwashing.   En 2021 hemos celebrado nuestro 50 aniversario. Medio siglo luchando para proteger esa naturaleza de cuya salud depende la nuestra, por encima de los intereses económicos de unos pocos. En general, el año pasado vimos algunos cambios y promesas, esperemos que los países cumplan con su palabra y no intenten usar las áreas grises.  Este año, los franceses han prohibido los envases de plástico en los supermercados de allí, que entrarán en vigor de repente el 1 de enero de este año.  Aquí en España los supermercados tienen hasta 2023 para cambiar el envase.   La canción del blog para hoy es: "En el verano" por Mungo Jerry" TTFN