E-Trash; Filling Our Landfills?

When I started working on my blog this week I was looking at "up-cycling" as the focus. I still plan on writing about up-cycling, but I kept coming across facts about E-trash that I found to be a huge and growing problem. With the amount of electronics, cell phones, and computers that we buy every year, a big percentage of these items are ending up in our landfills. Here are some of the facts I found on E-trash:

• In 2007, companies with an enviro-tech focus received $3.95 billion in venture funding, a 38 percent increase over 2006. IT asset recovery (selling refurbished PCs)—is now a $6 billion–a-year business. (TheDailyGreen.com)
• At the 2008 CES, Fujitsu showed a laptop PC whose outside plastic shell is 50 percent vegetable-based polymer alloy. (Fujitsu.com)
• Creation of a desktop PC usually requires ten times the PC's weight in fossil fuels and chemicals, most of them toxic. (BBC News )
• If you're not sure where to donate out-of-use electronics, Recycles.Org can match you up with nonprofit agencies that use old equipment. By 2011, more than 400 million PCs will have been purchased as replacements for current home and office computers. (eBay Rethink, Gartner) Typical U.S. cell-phone users replace their phones every year and a half. (eBay Rethink)
• 130 million cell phones each year go into retirement. (EPA)
• Recycling 100 million phones would recover 3.4 metric tons of gold—gold that would not have to be mined. (EPA )
• PCs contain gold too: 1.2 tons of PC scrap electronics has more than can be extracted from 17 tons of gold ore. (ResourceSaver)
• Only 15 percent of Americans are aware that local recyclers will take old electronics and computers. (eBay Rethink, ACNielsen) Each year, the world generates 20 million to 50 million metric tons of e-waste, according to United Nations Environmental Programme. E-waste makes up 2 percent of solid waste in the U.S. and is the fastest-growing segment of U.S. garbage. (Intercon Solutions )
• Manufacturing one desktop and one monitor requires: 530 pounds of fossil fuel, 58 pounds of chemicals, and 1.5 tons of water. (UN, ResourceSaver)
• Twelve percent (25 million) of Americans would pay extra for greener electronics. On the other hand, 41 percent (90 million) are not willing to pay extra. (Forrester)
• Wii is the power-saving leader of game consoles, consuming only 18.4 watts. Compare the hogs: Xbox (186W), PS3 (199W), and a PC (209W at peak usage). (hardCOREware.net )
• While old CRT monitors use more energy to show white than black, LCDs spend slightly more energy to show black than white. (scientific american)
• Don't recycle, Freecycle: There are 4,226 Freecycle.org online groups helping more than four million users give away "junk" to others who can use it. (Dell)
• 2.05 million tons of electronics were put out as garbage in the U.S. in 2005. Only about 18 percent of that was recycled. (Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition )
• The U.S scraps about 400 million pieces of consumer electronics equipment—e-waste—per year. It's the fastest-growing waste stream. (Electronics TakeBack Coalition) () If you buy a new system, Apple and Dell will recycle your old computer, regardless of manufacturer. (Dell Recycling)
• Search EPEAT.net's Product Registry to find computers and monitors that are certified green. (EPEAT.net)
• It's estimated that as much as 80 percent of U.S. e-waste is shipped overseas or to Mexico to be dismantled in unsafe working conditions. (Electronics TakeBack Coalition)
• To create just 1 kilogram of consumer goods, manufacturers on average create 5 kilograms of waste. (RSC )
• Bamboo is the most sustainable of all materials. Look for laptops encased in it, such as the ASUS Ecobook. (ASUS.com)
• By 2001, e-waste already accounted for 70 percent of the heavy metals and 40 percent of the lead in U.S. landfills. (EPA.gov)
• Take an HP, Lexmark, or Dell printer cartridge to Staples for recycling and you will get a $3coupon for ink or toner. (Staples.com) Energy Star 4.0 is quite stringent, demanding highly efficient power supplies and very-low-power idle modes. (energystar.gov)

If we all could just do our part to recycle or freecycle our old devices we could make a huge impact currently on our landfills and long into the future.