E-Waste Mountains and Techie Cast-offs

[Jonathon Watkins]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4105473.stm' target='_blank'>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4105473.stm</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Nearly every time a new electrical item is bought, an old one needs disposing of. But are we doing so properly? Four million phones have been sold this Christmas, which means another four million are probably no longer used. Most are destined for the rubbish bin, with the potato peelings and chocolate wrappers. And like all household waste, they end up in the ground. Teenagers get a new phone every 11 months, adults every 18 months. A total of 15 million handsets are replaced each year. It is estimated that 200 million electrical items per year end up in non-hazardous landfill sites, so there could be six billion items buried across the UK."</i><br /><br />To show the problem more graphically, the Royal Society of Arts is building a sculpture which will be several meters tall and three tons in weight to represent the quantity of electronics an individual disposes of in a lifetime. Yup, that's a lot of dead electronics items alright. Are you putting your old Pocket PCs and phones to good use? If you have any usable PDAs that you don't use any more, why not consider donating them to organisations that could really use them, like this project to <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=35005">equip medical staff in Africa and help the fight against Aids</a>? In the same vein, if you have unused mobile phones, why not <a href="http://www.fonebak.com/">send them to Fonebak</a> who will repair them and pass them on to developing nations or dispose of them in an environmentally friendly manner. Ebay has also just <a href="http://www.ebay.com/rethink">brought together</a> several technology industry heavyweights in an initiative to promote recycling of old computers etc. So do you recycle your equipment or would you in the future? You know it makes sense. ;-)

[bjornkeizers]

I never throw away any old equipment because - knock on wood - I've never, ever had anything break on me. In the past, when equipment wasn't useful to me anymore and required replacement, I sold off the old gear for cheap.

These days, I still keep my old equipment though. It might not be useful now, but it might be useful somewhere down the line. Say, if someone in my family needs a PDA or someone needs some software tested, they'll come in handy. If you store them in a dark, cool and dustfree place, they'll last a good long time.

[dMores]

phones ... i used to replace them pretty frequently, and managed to sell them for a few bucks. one i even paid for my new phone by selling the old one.

PDAs: only one unit broke down on my, and that was the one i got second-hand. a psion s5. don't know what's wrong with it, but i haven't had the nerve to sell it for $1 on ebay. maybe i should check again ... someone's bound to need a replacement screen or keyboard for their unit.
the other pdas i had were also sold. either IRL, or online.
or handed down to my parents, brother, girlfriend, etc.

but i also have a "junk" drawer at home which still holds about 16Mb RAM in 4Mb chips, a bunch of cables, an old sony walkman, various converter plugs etc.

environmentally safe, so to speak, since i keep it out of the environment :)

[Sven Johannsen]

We found a decent use for old phones. The local women's shelter will take them to hand out to women that may need them for emergency calls. All phones, in the US anyway, can call emergency numbers whether or not there is a service plan.

[Oreocat]

Just as an option, most domestic violence agencies are exceptionally grateful for any donations of old, useable cell phones &amp; accessories.

They usually recondition and set up the phones so they can only dial 911, and are then given to people in bad situations (who may not have other options) as a way of getting help in a hurry.

We upgraded our phones this year (part of that lovely 4 million :)), and had just seen a notice requesting old phones, so we ended up giving 6 phones, batteries and chargers to the local domestic violence unit.

At least I know they're being put to good use, instead of sitting in a drawer collecting dust :)

**And now I feel silly, Sven just posted the same thing! Eh, it's all good info :D **

[emuelle1]

I still have my two old cell phones. I should drop them in a box at work for recycled phones. Don't suspect anyone wants a Motorola vt120? It was a darn good phone, until we got the vt721 flip phones.

[allenalb]

does anyone have a link to any domestic violence sites that will take phones? i have a pile of them, and except for a dead pixel on one samsung, they all work perfectly!

[Damion Chaplin]

I have a tiered approach to upgrading my equipment, one that I suspect many people do:

I am 'tier one'
My girlfried is 'tier two'
My family is 'tier three'
My friends are 'tier four'
eBay is 'tier five'

When I buy a new PDA, phone, video card etc, I take my old one and see if my GF or someone in my family needs it. If not, then it goes to my friends, none of which have the disposable income (or inclination) to upgrade every 6 months (or year). I have friends how now own my old 800mhz PC, my original iMac, my original iPAQ, my original digital camera. If I have no friends who need it (and I could actually get money for it), then it goes on eBay. Using this system minimizes the amount of obsolete equipment piling up in my garage. Electronics that still function should be recycled in any way possible.

A friend who's never even held a PDA before is all too happy to get my original iPAQ for $100, even if the battery life is abysmal.

[Oreocat]

allenalb, there's probably a couple of listings under Domestic Violence Information in your yellow pages, and your local police department should have some contact information as well :)

[Newsboy]

I have taken to recycling every electronic item that I dispose of from now on, and sticking with older technology until a true innovation comes along. Being a manufacturing engineer, I see how much waste is generated just when new items are made, nevermind how much is disposed of in landfills.

Food for thought: to make a modern computer CPU, over 70 pounds of waste, most of it polluted water, is generated during the manufacturing process.

Personally, I use the following recycling outlets:

- All monitors to a local monitor recycling firm
- All cell phones and rechargeable batteries to Best Buy, which has a dropoff at the front door
- All other electronics to my school's recycling contractor, who takes anything and everything at no charge to me