How to sell or recycle old electronics
Where to Recycle Electronics: How to Recycle Old Electronics
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Americans are getting better at the
basics of recycling you know paper
plastic and aluminum cans but when it
comes to electronics or e-waste most of
us don't know exactly what these items
are much less how to recycle them think
about things that either have a battery
a power cord or they require a power
cord
Richard Copeland of Republic Services
has a few tips on why we recycle e-waste
and how to do it first up protect our
environment from toxic materials
electronics by and large have got
hazardous materials inside you're
talking about things like lead and
cadmium and beryllium and other
substances that we really want to make
sure are properly handled and disposed
of those chemicals can wreak havoc on
our soil and water supplies and number
two
anything with a lithium-ion battery can
be a fire hazard so it has to be
disposed of properly
when they are ruptured or broken either
in one of our compactors or at one of
our recycling facilities oxygen and
lithium-ion turn into a fire or the
worst case they explode you'd be
surprised to know that even something as
innocent as one of those light-up
birthday cards can be a hazard I've run
over this with one of my forklifts gets
to oxygen and this little thing will
catch fire very quickly we'll wrap our
list of electronics recycling with where
to drop off your e-waste reputable
retailers like Best Buy or Target are
known in many parts of the country to
accept electronics waste Best Buy has a
site with info on the wide range of
items they accept while target focuses
on smaller electronics like cell phones
which contain a literal gold mine for
every 1 million cell phones that are
recycled properly you're gonna catch 35
thousand pounds of copper you're gonna
get about 772 pounds of silver and 75
pounds of gold out of those 1 million
phones richard says most cities will
also accept be waste they may have a
quarterly or
annual event think of like a parking lot
at the Municipal Building or in high
school on a Saturday Earth 900 is also a
great resource to find drop-off
locations for electronics and batteries
up in our recycling game by putting a
waste in its proper place
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