Recycling Electronics: Catching on in BK
May 5, 2010 1 CommentFor my awesome series on Babelgum, New in New York, I wanted to find some people who are doing something good for the environment but also good for my home of Brooklyn. It didn’t take long to find an awesome electronics recycling drive going on at PS10 in Park Slope. I subscribe to the Mac Support Store’s email list, and they sponsored the event. Easy peasy. So I went to check it out.
Honestly? I thought it would be the guy from the Mac Support Store, some nice Park Slope resident whose kid goes to PS10, and me, with a lot of silence. I was incredibly amazed to watch as tons of people came by with old computers, phones, tape recorders, video games…just tons and tons of old electronics, all to be picked up and recycled by ERevival.
I brought a few items to recycle myself, which made me feel good, I admit. But what really made me feel good was seeing so many people participate. It made this cynical human feel better. So before you plop that old PC tower on the curb, take a peek at the ERevival website to see if you can do better than that.
Most of your fans don’t seem to care much about this topic, so I’ll share my comments. I’ve worked for years as an electronic technician, someone who assembles, tests and repairs electronic “gadgets”. We’re living in an era of “disposable electronics” now, more than ever before.
Electronic recycling is definitely a good and necessary thing. There really are harmful chemicals used in the making of circuit boards and displays,
which are used to make mobile phones, portable video games, laptops and MP3 players. These materials can definitely be recycled and avoid going into landfills, further polluting our environment.
A material known as solder, which has long been used to connect wires and electronic components together, has recently been offered in lead free versions. Since the mid-1960′s, most gadgets have been made of plastic, which is definitely recyclable. The burning of most plastics generates toxic, deadly fumes.
As a long time gadget person, we’re now in an age where technology is evolving more quickly than ever before and people are more frequently disposing of their outdated gadgets, than ever before. The average lifespan of a mobile phone or laptop is now about two years. After two years have gone by, one can purchase a replacement device, that outperforms and costs less than the original device.