 E-Trash consists of unwanted used electronics  This can mean computers, TV’s, music players, or anything with a circuit board  E-Trash accounts for only 2% of trash in Americas’ landfills  However, it accounts for 70% of toxic waste in America  Currently, less than 10% of used electronics are recycled  The rest is either stockpiled to disposed of improperly  E-Trash is becoming more and more prevalent as technology advances and makes older technology obsolete

 Untreated E-Trash can be a major source of toxins and carcinogens  Another concern is lead, mercury, and cadmium found in most E-Trash  38 separate chemical agents are found in the average E-Trash unit, such as a computer  One computer monitor can contain as much as 6% of its weight in lead  One entire computer can contain as much as 4-6 pounds of lead  None of it is biodegradable, and as we continue to throw away more and more E-Trash, our landfills become more deadly to the environment

 E-Trash can be a great source of raw materials, such as gold, silver, titanium, aluminum, tin, iron, zinc, and copper  As the price of said materials continues to rise, recycling E-Trash is becoming more acceptable and much easier

 Another option to recycling is reusing  Many organizations collect used electronics then re-sell them for profit  No electronic device is ever truly useless, and most devices can be re-sold  This option saves money, time, and the environment

 Most modern E-Trash recycling plants are more or less un- manufacturing plants  They take E-Trash units and break them down into separate components, then harvest the new raw material  This is why E-Trash recycling can often cost a small fee, as the recycler has to pay for the labor cost of breaking down E-Trash into its components

 Dedicated E-Waste recycling facilities are somewhat rare in the U.S. at the time  There are many plants that, rather than truly recycle the waste, they ship it to third world countries where environmental laws are more lax and labor is cheaper  Currently, 50-80% of E-Trash being recycled isn’t, and is simply exported to third-world countries  Usually these developing countries have weak labor laws, and workers are directly exposed to harmful materials such as lead and mercury  This is often why the reuse/resale of E-Trash is stressed

 This year, there are nearly twice as many “obsolete” computers as there are citizens in the United States  As new technology is developed at this rapid pace, E-Trash is produced even faster in the form of “obsolete” electronics  The amount of these “obsolete” electronics will steadily increase, because electronics companies have a policy called “planned obsoleteness”  This means the make electronics knowing they will be obsolete in a given amount of time, therefore they increase profit