Collecting E-Waste: Awesome... or is it?

I came across this article...  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/05/opinion/sunday/where-do-old-cellphones-go-to-die.html?_r=0 and basically read it only because, unfortunately, I already knew this. I know where old cellphones go to die. I know where most e-waste goes to die. But after seeing an e-waste collection at the last Earth Day in a nearby small town, I had to wonder how many people bother to think about it.

Yay! Someone's taking my junk!

Everyone rejoices when they hear about an e-waste "recycle" day. See, because here in PA, they earlier this year passed a law saying you could no longer throw TVs etc. into the trash. From all I see and hear, this is just one big inconvenience to most. Because we don't stop to think about what happens to things we throw away. We just throw them away and stop thinking about the immediately. Oh, it's all well and good when we buy things and they are new and wonderful, but when their usefulness has come to an end, these wonderful things are now just a nuisance. I call it the Christmas Tree Syndrome. As the holidays approach, we go out to a live tree lot with great joy and enthusiasm to pick out that perfect spruce. Everyone's happy. The kids are happy. We happily and lovingly tie them to the roofs of our cars and happily take them home, where we happily take them inside and happily decorate them. Mirth all around. Oh, how we love them so. Then, shortly after the holiday, what do we see? Sad, dried-out, dejected, discarded trees at the curb. Bits of sad tinsel still clinging to some limbs. Needles continuing to fall out all around. Because, the usefulness is over. We don't care anymore. Something that brought us joy no longer has a purpose. Now, it's someone else's problem. And, oh, man, they had BETTER come and get that tree. It's my right as an Uh-meer-i-cuhn to get that tree picked up darn-tootin' I pay my taxes.

And now... damn it's just so damned inconvenient to have to actually THINK about where that discarded no-longer-amusing just-too-big TV has to go. We were happy enough when we bought it, but now it's just a damn nuisance. Phones? Who cares. I want a new one. I lost it, I broke it, I dropped it in the toilet. All which just really means it's still trashing the planet somewhere out there. I don't care. I don't see it anymore.

So, yeah, when we went to the "free e-waste recycling" at a local Earth Day event, I was pretty horrified at the amount of SHIT people were unloading. With no more thought than, "Damn, stupid I had to drive this all the way down here, WTH." Do we care where it's going? Do we know? Do we give it a second thought? How about a first thought? Do we think about WHY these things shouldn't be in a landfill? Most of us don't actually live near landfills, so we don't think about those either. I've become friends with the local municipal waste expert. He's a really cool guy. Oh, the questions I hear him get. And, bless his heart, he answers so patiently. I stand in awe.

By and large, unfortunately, I see time and again that people don't really care WHERE it goes, so long as it goes somewhere. Makes me think of the Motley Crue song, "Hey, don't go away mad, just go away." So these collection days become more a scene in people being inconvenienced, rather than people doing the right thing. Would it matter if they SAW where these things go, and the horrible conditions surrounding what happens to these things? If they could smell the toxic soup that other humans breathe after we throw things out? If they realized what would be leaching into the Earth if we just continued to pile them into landfills?

Well, you already know my answer.

I got nuthin'. This is just a rant. I know what the solution is: stop buying so much. But that won't happen. Yeah, I must know where my phone is at all times, but I stick with a cell phone and replace it only while kicking and screaming that I don't want a new one! Ugh, I have to learn a whole new gadget. Hell, yeah, it's awesome, but seriously, I will keep a phone as many years as I can. Same with computers. TV? Ours is big and heavy but it still works and it throws off some heat and OH those new thin ones sure are sharp... but no. Ours still works. iPads? iPhones?? Replacing them every time a new one comes out, just cuz it has to be the newest, not because the *old* one broke? THAT'S some serious denial about what's happening out there in, oh, you know, REALITY.

But, geez o' man, those e-waste collections are SO inconvenient. Can't I just throw it away? And who cares?

For your perusing pleasure...

Electronics Dump

Most Americans throw away rather than recycle outdated devices. Below, the percentage of electronics, by weight, that wound up in landfills or incinerators in 2006-10.

 http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/05/05/sunday-review/0505-garbage.html?ref=sunday

iPads = eWaste and nothing more.

Earlier today, I posted and commented on an article from Tree Hugger about iPads and how "effed" we all are (http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/05/this-is-why-were-all-effed-ipad-tops-1-million-sales-3-g-version-is-identical.php?campaign=daily_nl Thanks Jaymi Heimbuch for saying exactly what I feel!!!). This led to a small and fun conversation with a friend. I thought I would share it here. Of course, I have cleaned it up from messy chat-speak so as not to reveal any foibles.

T: RD, I'm curious about your hatred of the eBook.

Me: oh?

T: Granted they are not recyclable, but they do prevent paper waste and deforestization. I"m not ARGUING... I just don't see your perspective clearly. I'm trying to learn.

Me: To clarify: I don't hate e-books but e-readers.

T: Noted.

Me: They create a lot of useless e-waste. Books can be made from any supply of recycled, reclaimed paper, no need to de-forest. I've even seen a book made from reused plastic. Also, many publishers are now embracing a print-on-demand system when the book will not be printed until ordered. No waste.

T: Interesting.

Me: A book can be handed down throughout the generations. An e-reader only lives as long as its obsolete date. A book from 50 years ago is still around and able to be enjoyed. Where will any given Kindle be in 50 years?

T: How do you feel about the iPod? Not the iPAD, the iPod?

Me: Well, I have an mp3 player... the tiniest I could get. It holds 250 songs... more than enough. It took a dump one day. I could have replaced it for $20 but instead a found a recovery tool and salvaged it. I love my mp3 player. So far as iPods go, I think people treat them WAY too disposably and I think that Apple, in its pursuit of profit, makes them entirely too short-lived.

T: Okay, so as long as there is electricity and back-up drives, the contents of an e-reader can survive, too, right?

Me: ...no.... I think e-readers have planned obsolescence. Besides, as my husband is fond of saying, if I drop a book, I pick it up and find my place again. If I drop a Kindle, I have to go buy another.

T: CONTENTS of e-readers is what I said. I have a Sony reader and it's already past its prime. I use it DAILY to read the newspaper, but still... My point is the contents can live on, much like any electronic data can (now) which is similar to any other media--- including Edison Wax Cyllendars and wire recordings... which have been converted to more contemporarly media for preservation.

Me: This is true. But we're talking about the e-waste of the delivery systems.

T: IS there a way that the e-waste can be reclaimed somehow? You would know much better than I.

Me: They claim so. Every unit can be painstakingly disassembled and the various components go their ways.
Which begs the question... is there profit in that? No. And if there is no profit, there is no incentive to reclaim this stuff. So, while in THEORY these things ARE recyclable, in REALITY, they are going to live in a pile in some 3rd world country that we pay to take our trash.

I enjoyed that conversation quite a bit. It's like my friend reached into my brain and asked exactly what I would have wanted to be asked. I love books, I love to read, and you can hardly keep me out of a used book store. I've bought my share from eBay, too. (Re-using!!) I never ever ever ever want an electronic reader. I'm hoping we never see a day where we can no longer get BOOKS. Sure, I'll read on my laptop, but my laptop serves other purposes... it's not just a reader and as disposable as those are. iPads? All I see when I look at them is e-waste. They'll last, what, a few years? Then, it's a new model, a "better" model, something else new and shiny and different. Some argue that Apple will take the units back and do... something (?) with them. Uh huh. Just like when we throw the plastic water bottle in the recycling bin, it's SURE to be recycled. (Um, no.) Not to be overly crass (oh what the heck, that's opening the door to be crass, who am I kidding), but when I see an iPad, I think it is about as useful as the other kind of pad out there... the ones that jokes between such and the iPad have already been made... once used, all you can do is throw it away.

I'm willing to see what we have done with Kindles and Sony Readers in 5 years. 10 years. Maybe putting them on the Moon? Shooting them into space in waste capsules? There's NO PROFIT in breaking them down and recycling them, so that is not going to happen anytime soon. It's just not. All we can do is NOT buy the stuff. But we buy it, because we have to have the latest shiny new object to distract us from oil spills and climate change.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to curl up on my couch with the latest book I bought used off eBay. When I'm done with it... well, I'll still have it. Maybe I'll even, oh, I don't know, pass it along? What a novel idea.