In this post I decided that some shocking facts related to e-waste may bring to light some of the many problems it causes and a positive outcome of recycling e-waste.
Fact 1.
E-Waste represents 2% of America’s landfills however it is equivalent to 70% of America’s toxic waste.
Fact 2.
Cell phones and other electronic items contain PRECIOUS metals.
To put it in perspective in a year America will dump $60 million worth of gold/silver each year.
Feeding America can provide 9 meals for every $1, that means 540 million possible meals are being thrown out.
Tuition at Baruch for 4 years is roughly $23,000, that equivalent to 2,600+ tuition for students
Fact 3.
Recycling 1 million laptops saves the energy equivalent to the electricity used by 3,657 U.S. homes in a year.
In 2010 51,900,000 computers were disposed.
Lets assume 30,000,000 out of the 51,900,000 are laptops. That means 100,000+ households could have electricity for a year.
Fact 4.
For every 1 million cell phones that are recycled, 35,274 pounds of copper, 772 pounds of silver, 75 pounds of gold, and 33 pounds of palladium can be recovered.
35,274 pounds of copper = $116,404.20
772 pounds of silver = $240,864
75 pounds of gold = $1,462,400
33 pounds of palladium = $367,488
Total per 1 million cell phones = $2,187,156.20
If these numbers aren’t enough to convince you of the potential gain from recycling e-waste then maybe the following video will help you sympathize with those suffering from primitive e-waste recycling methods.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-_ubuFhqQA
