Surprising Toxic Waste From Your Electronics

re: Surprising Toxic Waste From Your Electronics

chovihani — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 09:29:40 GMT

CEM...Don't be such a pedantic wuss. I railed against mobile phone but finally had to have one because my car kept breaking down. Now I have one for emergencies only as does my mum...she has a heart condition. The problem on the mobile phone front is only those idiots who can't stop texting for every trivial reason...I personally don't fancy the prospect of being alone and stranded and unable to ring someone. For the most part my phone is switched off. What do you do in an emergency???Shout?

re: Surprising Toxic Waste From Your Electronics

Komic Kaze — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 23:14:07 GMT

Gadgets and whatnot are great, but someone always comes out with one better, and then there's another better. We need to stop this materialism in this country. We think that things will make us happy. It is destroying our world one gadget at a time. Sure, I own a cell phone, but I never use it. It is a TracFone. I have 55 minutes on it and never use it. Emergencies only. I will keep it until the day I die. I have an mp3 player I've owned for three years with 2 GB of space. Good enough for me. My laptop is five years old and still works fine. I'm pleased with the things I have so I don't need to go out and get something "new".

re: Surprising Toxic Waste From Your Electronics

EdKnowsAll — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 02:31:08 GMT

I believe that if it was manufactured in China, It can be disposed of in China. Americans just need to stop buying "Made in China" products. That would drastically reduce the "consumerism" plague in the U.S.. Especially considering that by buying products made in China, people are financing the killing and abuse of innocent Tibetans.

re: Surprising Toxic Waste From Your Electronics

PALADIN211 — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 20:42:00 GMT

Why don't we just ship ALL our garbage to an active lava tube in Hawaii, throw it in and let it burn up into whatever it was before we put it all together to make the garbge in the first place? Isn't it true that nothing really leaves this Earth except reflected light, radio waves and a few deep space probes??

"Stupid scientists!"....... Homer Simpson

re: Surprising Toxic Waste From Your Electronics

rrochon — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 18:56:04 GMT

Where does all of this mercury, lead, cadmium, etc., come from to make all of these gadgets?

Answer: It comes out of the ground.

Question: What's the big deal with putting it back in the ground were it came from?

Comment: Concentrating it in one place where it can leach into rivers, etc., in massive amounts is not wise, however spreading it around in various sites, in small amounts, away from rivers, etc., would not be adding anything to the earth that was not there before someone dug it up.

Maybe the price of these gadgets could include a cost to cover grinding them up and re-burying them. Or shooting them into space. Sending them to Mars or farther.

re: Surprising Toxic Waste From Your Electronics

visioneer29 — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:27:04 GMT

Read "Cradle to Cradle," by green architect William McDonough & his engineer partner, Gary Braungart (sp?). It's subtitled "Remaking the Way We Make Things." I sent my first dead laptop to Apple and told them THEY were responsible for its manufacture, so they should be responsible for its SAFE disposal/recycle. If everyone did that, they would have much more incentive to make products that can be more easily recycled. I still have my second dead laptop; when I have more money, I'll replace its hard drive & donate it to a school (here in NYC, there are plenty of schools/students who can use it & can't afford one). What I'll get out of it is a (small) tax deduction & the knowledge that I've not contributed to the problem. I'm not an "early adaptor" & resisted cell phone use for a long time (& I have a Wave Shield headset). I don't drive a car, don't eat anything but organic fruits, vegetables, legumes, oils, & a few sprouted grains, don't cook my food (though I do a little dehydrating & do heat water for tea), use full spectrum compact fluorescent bulbs throughout my apartment, etc. etc. We can all do our part, on whatever scale is appropriate to our individual lives. Fix the problem, not the blame.

re: Surprising Toxic Waste From Your Electronics

Desertskiesmusic — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:07:39 GMT

There are a few ways to help keep electronics from being shipped to these sweat houses. For cell phones abuse centers can use working phones or go to http://recyclemycellphone.org/ , for working electronics try donating to a local organization that can use it or go to earth911.org/.../reuse-electronics-through-donation , for batteries locate a drop off here www.rbrc.org/.../index.php.

You do the best you can at home. One can also support workers' rights through organizations that work toward ending these foul practices and improving conditions for these foreign workers.

re: Surprising Toxic Waste From Your Electronics

momtospecialneeds — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 12:36:04 GMT

It's always about bashing the United States. China makes most of the electronics that come into the United States and we get blamed for sending it back. We are even blamed because their gov't doesn't supply their people with training and jobs so that they don't take jobs like melting down electronic boards. Where is the responsibilty of their gov't. The world says they don't want the United States to police their countries, then turns around and blames us for their problems. If China does not want their products back- maybe they should not make them to begin with. Frankly I'm tired of Americans being blamed for all the worlds problems. China creates more pollution from their cars than us, they have more people than us. They are suffering under their form of gov't, so raise up and change your gov't and stop blaming America for your problems. If they didn't export everything from their cheap labor, Americans would have more jobs. I would like to say that waste of resources is always wrong. Consumerism for the sake of always having the newest is wrong, but it couldn't happen without the "help" of the Chinese.

re: Surprising Toxic Waste From Your Electronics

Togapiggy — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 05:42:09 GMT

Even if you want to be cautious and actualy try looking for a place to recycle your old electronics....ITS NOT POSSIBLE. No one has a clue where to go or who to call. How am I supposed to recycle my old electronics if there is no outlet for it?! Specialy in a town like Vegas that doesnt recycle at all. Yes they have the trucks...but I have personally seen the recycle trucks drive into the same city dump as the trash trucks and dump in the same area.

Im glad i dont live there anymore, and live in beautiful Oregon that recycles everything....but still noone knows what to do with old electronics

re: Surprising Toxic Waste From Your Electronics

CEM — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 03:47:51 GMT

Dr. Mercola - I did not even finish reading this article. How can you own a cell phone when you've raised concerns, in other articles, about how dangerous the electromagnetic/microwave fields they emit are?

You say you own one only for emergencies, but if you own a cell phone, you are part of the problem, because they will keep making more of them with the money they rake in from all the people just like you who claim they use their cell phones "only for emergencies".

Maybe you even do only use your cell phone for emergencies, but you are still funding the slaughter of others who don't, and what did you do for emergencies prior to cell phones?

I'm very disappointed in you.

Personally, as an electrosensitive, I despise electronics and cell phones and can't wait until the day when even this computer I'm typing on explodes - because I have been physically ill since the advent and proliferation of wireless technology. Google the Bioinitiative Report.

re: Surprising Toxic Waste From Your Electronics

All Under Heaven — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 17:27:05 GMT

It's always money.

The problem with e-waste is convenience. Or more accurately, the lack of convenience. Many people have unwanted electronics stashed in their garage, their basement, attic, or throughout the house. And e-waste disposal programs are usually not convenient to come by or only comes around in a community area every now and then. Or they're hard to find and not available at all. So instead of safely disposing e-waste, it ends up in the landfills and taken out with the garbage where it'll seep into the environment.

I think all stores that sells electronics (Best Buy, Circuit City, Fry's, Target, Wal-Mart) should have a disposal area for recycling and safe disposal of electronics. For the consumer's convenience to drop it off and forget about it. Maybe even give a small refund (like for recycling bottles) as an incentive.

E-waste is a big problem everywhere, but the US also exports all sorts of waste materials to China, where they are either just dumped there or the raw materials are reprocessed into new products that gets imported back.

re: Surprising Toxic Waste From Your Electronics

samurai — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:17:23 GMT

In Dallas, there are some freeways that have tolls. If you don't wish to stop to pay your dollar, you can order electronic labels for your car, and the toll reads it, and takes it out of your checking account automatically. One day, I was on the cell while passing one of these tolls, and just as I passed a crazy "ZAPP!!" came over my phone. My left ear felt "fried" for a few moments after that.

That was the last day I would ever do that again.