Lean, mean, green machines
March 5th, 2007 by Eric
There is an enormous problem in this country and around the world with an increasing amount of e-waste, the technological waste left over from discarding obsolete computers, televisions, and other electronics. Most of these gadgets are sent overseas to poor and underdeveloped countries and dismantled by workers who are exposed to dangerous toxins. Most of the remainders end up in landfills polluting our soil and water.
But Dell and Hewlett-Packard are taking steps to correct this problem. According to CNN, the two computer giants have opened a giant computer recycling plant near Sacramento, California where:
The electronic carcasses are fed into a massive machine that noisily shreds them into tiny pieces and mechanically sorts the fragments into piles of steel, aluminum, plastic and precious metals. Those scraps are sent to smelting plants, mostly in the Sacramento area, where they are melted down for reuse.
Just how big is this problem? Huge, if you ask the Environmental Protection Agency or California technology research company, Gartner Inc.
American consumers generated nearly 2 million tons of electronic waste in 2005. Gartner estimates that 133,000 PCs are discarded by U.S. homes and businesses each day.
What can you do? Recycle, recycle, recycle (three times is serious). Here is an entire website devoted to the cause. So whether you want to adios one computer or one thousand, do it right.
Thanks to this angry computer smasher for the pic
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