As Professor Harold Hill so aptly put it to the City Council ..
“We got trouble, right here in River City!”
What’s all this noise about “Dangerous Electronics?” Can’t we just throw our old computers and TV’s in the dump and cover it up? (Kind of like the out-of-site, out-of-mind theory?) AND why in the world do I have to pay for disposal? Well read on, Bunkie!
Consider: Man has always created trash. Wherever he goes or wherever he lives, wherever he works, he creates trash …. On the land, on the sea and in the air, he leaves a trail of trash! We can then logically conclude that Man is a natural trash maker. However …..
“While what we do with our all of our trash is an important issue,
What we do with our dangerous trash is an even bigger
and a far more critical issue. Man’s modern day problem ….
Discarded Electronics Devices are in fact, very dangerous
Items in a land fill. It must stop; now!”
Captain GreenJeans
“In the beginning” We threw out our cave trash indiscriminately; bones, fur hunks, and assorted fur balls were tossed out the front of our caves. We might have even swept out the big hunks of rotting things as well. But basically we lived very closely with our trash. Not very tidy but we had no trash guys then. Unfortunately, they had not yet been invented.
Later on in our evolution, we might have dumped our trash in a low or a hidden corner of the family farm and covered it up. A little time spent but no cost. In this situation, we were our own trash guys and we did not have to live quite so close to our trash so we were being a bit more tidy than our ancestors.
That my friends, was the end of any semblance to “Free Trash Disposal” Today, the “Pay for Trash Disposal Era” has became a reality.
In the early days of civilized, city trash pick up and if you lived in the city, the trash guys came down the alley and picked up anything and everything. Paint, chemicals, tires, trash of any kind as long as they could lift it. Few if any rules….but keep in mind that it was not free!. You paid for it in your city taxes. The trash budget in most cities is huge! Even then, most of us had no idea about the risks of many of these items going to the dump.
Rural and small towns usually have a somewhat easier task for trash disposal than our larger cities because they are usually surrounded by a lot of open land. Big cities however have a bigger challenge. The city keeps growing toward the dump and eventually builds homes and shopping centers right on top of these old land fill dumps. Because we usually dig wells for our water, what goes in our dumps breaks down and the chemicals, both good and bad, leach into our water table and therein, lies the problem.
Remember the New York City barges? They wandered around the Harbor for months, trying to find a place to unload their mountains of trash. It’s the same all over the world and proper trash disposal truly costs everybody. “There is no free lunch and there is no free trash disposal” a sad but true fact of life. Think about what we really pay for trash removal now. Have you been to your local dump? Is it free?......not hardly… it’s expensive!
You need to become aware of the fact that dumping electronics is NOT the same as recycling your plastic or paper. Electronics contain large amounts of dangerous metals in forms that lend themselves to fast and easy breakdown and leaching into the water table!
In addition to the dump fees, we pay Tire Disposal Fees, we pay Battery disposal Fees, we pay Hazardous Chemicals and Hazardous Waste disposal Fees. Our electronics disposal problems are simply a direct result of the “Throw away society we have in this country”! Clearly, the U.S. Consuptiom (world-wide as well) of electronics is expanding at and enourmous rate. This problem is NOT going away.
Your personal trash collection is either paid for through your local taxes or more commonly, through your homeowner’s fees. If you attend any HOA meetings, you will see that those fees are substantial. We must then keep in mind that some waste, like most electronic device waste has an even higher disposal cost because of the labor intensive and detailed process costs that go with these dangerous items.
SOME Q&A -
Q. I have seen places that let you drop off your old electronics for free! What’s the deal?
A. There are several items to consider here:
1. One way or the other, someone (the city, state or some group is paying
for the disposal of these items). It is simply not free. But even if it were
free, the following is the major problem.
In far too many cases the city, the event promoter or your city or county knows that these dangerous items are going straight to the land fill! Sadly, most local and state governments are not aware of the dangers or simply don’t want to deal with them or don't have ther reveneus to do so.
Q. What about Data Security?
A. Another issue involved with computer disposal, is data security. In some
cases, what we keep on our hard drives is NOT critical nor has
any proprietary value. On the other hand, many business and
governmental data storage devices must either be totally destroyed and in
some cases even are required to be, “Destruction Certified” in order to protect
any critical data from getting into the wrong hands. Keep in mind that many
of the public disposal/re-cycling firms do NOT meet EPA or NACSE Data
Destruction Guidelines.
Q. How can I help this situation?
A. The primary problems we face.
First and maybe most critical is the fact that few people are aware of the
danger and timeliness of this issue. Our lands fills and dumps are
becoming inundated with these items on a daily basis. The EPA requires
corporations to comply with disposal guidelines, (however not all
corporations are in compliance), but few if any laws apply to individuals.
Our States and Local Municipalities are not, in most cases either aware
of, or attuned to the critical nature of the problem. Typically, trash is no
major issue in the political arena. The Lead found in toys from China has
hit the press, but almost nothing has been said about our daily local
problems.
Secondly, even for those who are aware of the problem, there are not very
many disposal recyclers who actually do and properly manage the entire
process from start to finish. Most are commercial firms whose primary
goal is making money, not taking care of our environment.
Finally, finding a “Qualified Disposal/Re-Cycler” can be difficult at best.
Getting the equipment to that firm can be even more difficult. One
of the primary goals of Green UP USA is to help develop easy access to
information on proper Electronics Disposal as well as assist individuals and
companies in finding the right places to dispose of their items.
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