By Mariela Martinez

Do you have broken computers, cell phones, cables or electronics at home taking up space? Don’t know what to do with them all?

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, out of 26.9 million units of disposed televisions, only 6.3 million units are recycled; out of 157.3 million units of computer products only 48.3 million are recycled; and out of 126.3 million units of cell phones trashed, only 14 million units are recycled. All these items are called e-waste, and it’s toxic to throw it away with your regular garbage.

Some of us throw these items away even when they’re not broken because we want the latest and the greatest. But what you don’t know is that every time you get rid of your old electronics you’re not actually getting rid of anything. Instead, you are contributing to a major e-waste problem in the world.

We live in a consumer culture that constantly consumes more and more goods made out of raw materials that collect a lot of toxins in their manufacturing.

Every time you throw away a cell phone, computer, or television, you throw away valuable resources that can be recycled to create more cell phones, computers, etc.

Most of the materials that our electronics are made out of can be recycled, such as glass, precious metals and plastics. Much of it is still in usable condition.

Toxins in these products like lead, mercury, and cadmium can leach out of landfills to cause havoc both to our health and our environment; they are so dangerous that governments have established laws to prevent them from ending up in landfills.

What’s even more astonishing is that many companies that don’t want to deal with the large amounts of e-waste simply send it to third world countries like China, India and various parts of Africa. There, the poor and corrupt governments put the e-waste into large open dumps where it contaminates local water supplies and eventually harms the local villagers when companies pay them to take the dangerous waste. You weren’t thinking about that when you traded the old cell phone for the newest model, were you?

The most important thing is to reuse your electronics instead of throwing them away. Don’t get rid of your old cell phone just because you chipped it a little.

Keep your products for as long as possible and don’t fall for those advertising gimmicks that tell you how much you really need the new Blackberry or iPhone.

This is about something bigger than any of us; this is about a world community that is suffering because of our consumerism.

Consumerism has become a serious problem. We simply buy and throw away and buy some more without thinking where our waste ends up. Ask yourself, how will it affect the environment and the people in the world?

The truth is that all that waste ends up in landfills. We destroy forests to make room for more landfills and dumps when maybe we should be looking for more ways to reuse and recycle those things we label “trash.”

Go online and figure out where your local e-waste processing center is, or call the company you bought the product from and see if they recycle the product.

You can usually mail your product to these places. This small effort really makes a difference, especially when you commit to using products that are made of recycled material.

Don’t contribute to this problem.

Mariela Martinez is a reporter for Fremont High School’s Magnet Chronicles.

Photo credit: Creative Commons