It's November 15. And that means it is America Recycles Day. While it may not have quite the notoriety of April's Earth Day, not yet at least, the eco-holiday is celebrating its 21st year today. It's important to remind ourselves that reducing waste and our carbon footprint is an important practice for the other 364 days of the year and essential to our environmental health.
This is especially true of technology waste, eWaste. Some estimates project there will be 4.68 billion mobile phone users by 2019. With new phones and technology being developed and released all the time, that's the potential for tons of obsolete or unwanted phones to end up in landfills.
Smartphones and tablets contain more than just glass and plastic, which do enough harm on their own. The presence of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), which never degrade and have a lasting impact on humans and the environment, and other potentially toxic material make responsible disposal even more important.
Adverse effects to the environment aside, there's also just unnecessary waste. According to the EPA, for every million recycled cell phones, 35 thousand pounds of copper, 772 pounds of silver, 75 pounds of gold and 33 pounds of palladium are recovered. Once a phone reaches a landfill, precious metals like these cannot be recovered.
Just reading this post is a step in the right direction, especially if you're considering selling your used phone. You make money and you extend the life of a device. That's what we call a win-win. If we're no longer accepting your particular device, we can at least show you where you can donate you phone locally.
Buying a used smartphone from Trademore is also a win-win. You get a new-to-you device for way less than the cost of buying at the store, and the device gets extended use without going to the trash.
Just a few things to keep in mind today – and every day.
America Recycles Day is organized by Keep America Beautiful. If you're looking to volunteer or attend an America Recycles Day event in your area, check out the group's events page.
Trademore has no connections, affiliations, partnerships or sponsorship agreements with the companies, entities, services and/or products mentioned in this blog post. The opinions, thoughts, views and expressions made within this blog post are independently created by and attributable to Trademore authors and/or contributors.