Green Living: Recycling Electronics
In last month’s Green Living, we talked about recycling. This month, we’d like to focus specifically on recycling electronics, sometimes called “eClycling.”
In our gadget-filled world, people are buying more electronics than ever before, including cell phones, computers, laptops, TVs, DVD players—you name it. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, in 2005, discarded electronics totaled about 2 million tons. Only about 15 – 20 percent of it was recycled. These products, while certainly great to have and use, they contain toxic chemicals such as mercury and lead that can pollute the environment and cause contamination and serious health problems.
Fortunately, Maryland and DC offer eCycling programs that accept household electronics for recycling. These programs ensure that electronics are properly disposed off, rather than contaminating our environment.
You can read more about Maryland’s eCycling program at the Maryland Department of the Environment.
You can read more about DC’s eCycling program at the Department of Public Works.
Additionally, if you want your used electronics to go to a worthy cause, you may want to consider donating them. Often times, schools and nonprofits will accept these types of donations, so check with your favorite nonprofit to see if you can donate your old, unused electronics.
Solar Energy World Makes the News! And Teaches Children About the Environment!
As you might’ve seen, Solar Energy World was recently featured on WBAL in Baltimore. A few weeks ago, we presented the children of Bryn Mawr Little School, the winners of our 40 Day Earth Day video contest with the prize of $2500 that will support future science education. We also donated supplies to grow a community garden.
Here’s a link to the news report: http://www.wbaltv.com/video/23836058/
Congrats to the children and their teachers! And remember, we need to think about saving the earth every day…not just on Earth Day.
Green Living: Recycling
Out of all the things we can do to reduce our carbon footprint, recycling is among the most powerful and easy to do. According to Sustainablog.org, the U.S. only earned a C for recycling. Here are some interesting statistics:
- 251 million – tons of trash in the United States
- 82 million – tons of materials recycled in the United States
- 53.4 – percentage of all paper products recycled in the United States
- 32.5 – percentage of total waste that is recycled in the United States
- 100 – approximate percentage of increase in total recycling in the United States during the past decade
- 8,660 – number of curbside recycling programs in the United States in 2006
- 8,875 – number of curbside recycling programs in the United States in 2003
- 6 – weeks it takes to manufacture, fill, sell, recycle and re-manufacture an aluminum beverage can
- 95 – percentage of energy saved by recycling an aluminum can, compared with manufacturing a new one
- 4.6 – pounds of trash per person per day in the United States (most in the world)
- 1.5 – pounds of recycled materials per person per day in the United States
Here in Maryland, residents and businesses recycled more than 44 percent of solid waste in 2007, and we’re sure those numbers are much higher today with the growing number of single-stream recycling programs sprouting up over the state.
The Maryland Department of the Environment has a useful tool for finding recycling programs, as well as links to other useful recycling resources.