eWaste


Need to get rid of some harmful stuff around the house?

Well the City of Chicago has an event for drop off on Saturday. It's called "Be Safe at Home", and it is an event where you can drop off eWaste, paint, gas cans, harmful household chemicals. We're attaching the flyer below this message.

It is at City Parking Facility 900 E. 103rd

Get there if you can. If you can't, look close to the flyer and you'll see there is a year round drop off that may be more convenient.

icon Be_Safe_at_Home.pdf (546 KB)

What is eWaste?

eWaste is waste that comes from computers, DVD players, mobile phones and other consumer and industrial electronics. Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_waste

Concern: The global Basal Action Network produced a report which showed that up to 70 percent of the US recyclable computer equipment is sent off to poor villages in Asia.  Underpaid workers are using dangerous methods to extract the precious metals inside. The practice has poisoned their water and has caused disease and environmental degradation.  Although law prevents it, eWaste recyclers are shipping things like monitors, hard drives, laptops and ink cartridges overseas where labor is cheap (about $1.5/day).

Action Step: Take care of  "old" computers in this order:  Reuse then recycle.   Recycling is great and should ALWAYS be done whenever an object can no longer be reused.  However it takes about 20 times more energy to recycle a product than it does to reuse it.  

Here's what you can do with your current computer just isn't cutting it any more:

Erase memory: It's not enough to just press "delete".  Data is stored in your computer's flash memory and needs to be removed by performing a "hard reset" which returns the computer back to its original factory condition.  The 2 best ways to do this are:

  1.    Do-it-yourself : Tools that meet government security standards overwrite each sector multiple times for added protection.  PC uses, go to Darick's Boot and Nuke (DBAN), which is free.  Other options are CyberCide, KillDisk, WipeDrive, and DataEraser, they are all fairly inexpensive.  A Mac with Mac OX S 10.4 installed use Disk Utility secure erase option.  
  2.        Have someone Do it for You: Send it to a facility that will reuse the computers that they can and then recycle those left over.  Most charities will gladly take your old computers.