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Why recycle electronics?

    Do you have an old computer gathering dust?  According to the National Safety Council's Environmental Health Center, there were 315 million obsolete computers in the U.S. in 2004.  That amounted  to 1.2 billion pounds of lead, 2 million pounds of cadmium, and 400,000 pounds of mercury.  In 2005 the US EPA said there were more than 250 MILLION computers (7.08 billion pounds)  that become obsolete. The average lifespan of a PC was 4.5 years in 1992 but only 2 years in 2005.

• Lead can damage the brain, central nervous system as well as the kidneys, has been linked to Alzheimer's disease, and has been known to affect the reproductive process.  It's notorious for getting into ground water, and air.
• Cadmium, which is absorbed through the air and the water, can damage kidneys and cause problems to include growth disturbances, skeletal damage, and reproductive deficiencies.
• Mercury collects in the water supply and can be transmitted to humans via fish, potentially causing brain damage, particularly in the areas of motor control, coordination, and balance.
• Hexavalent chromium is considered genotoxic, which means it can damage DNA.
• Brominated flame retardants can leach into the water supply.  Brominated compounds can damage the liver and cause digestive cancers.

    The demanufacturing process offers environmental benefits.  By reusing components and other electronic equipment, manufacturing cost and natural resources consumption can be reduced.  This enables the recovery and ultimate reuse of these valuable, yet potentially hazardous resources.  Material recovered include plastics, metals, leaded and non-leaded glass, circuit boards, power supplies and drives.