What Goes Around, Comes Around

So here we are preparing for the Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge, and working to get the word out about recycling electronic waste (e-waste) and properly disposing of unneeded pharmaceuticals. Then it struck me again, as it as a few times in my 4 ½ years here at EPA as the e-waste expert, just how ironic this all is for me.

You see, many years ago while I was in high school (before studying soils in college and then working as a crop extensionist in the Peace Corps), I was pretty heavy into electronics and computers, to the point that I was President of the high school amateur (Ham) radio club. And I worked at two large retailers, one a catalog retailer and the other a national chain that sells consumer electronics and electronics parts, selling all of these electronics that I am now encouraging people to recycle. Ironic. Talk about making your own future!

Back then, when I was selling people their first cell phone or home computer, and a 286 was considered "smokin'", we never gave any thought to what would happen to what we sold at the end of its life. We were just happy to have the sale. I don't think we ever imagined how fast new products would be introduced in the future, or that people would replace things for any other reason than because they broke. "Planned obsolescence" wasn't thought about -- at least not on the sales floor. But there were a few new things coming out all the time, some winners and others losers.

When we changed out the rechargeable battery in a cordless phone, we just threw it out without a second thought, even though at the time as a society we knew that there might be some issues with the materials inside it.

Now the same store collects those batteries for recycling with the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation.   And the same with the cell phones we sold, the computers, the TVs, and just about anything else. There are options now to recycle them, and the store or the manufacturer that sold your fancy new gadget to you is likely playing a part in recycling it when you're done with it. Sometimes it's just as easy as looking for a label or phone number on the product, or visiting the manufacturer's website.

It's great that we're thinking about what's going to happen to all of these things at the end of their life, but there's still more work to be done to get the word out, and get people to use these services for reusing or recycling e-waste.

Chris Newman works in EPA Region 5's Land and Chemical Division, and deals with issues related to electronic waste, scrap tires, and composting.

Comments

[John]

Rockin' post, Chris. Makes me think of all the medicines I flushed before I knew better.

[Mike]

I have to agree! So many people dispose of their medicines improperly. A little education could go a long way!