What is E-Waste

E-Waste is also known as electronic waste and can range from any electronic item from a television, computer parts, to your telephone system.  With technology always evolving and more and more people becoming dependent on electronic items (especially cell phones), the amount of electronic items ending up in landfills is astonishing. There have been many companies throughout the US which have been in existence for many years but are growing in popularity over the years which handle the proper disposal of these kinds of electronic products. They strip the products and recycle what they can for gold, copper, and other metals.  The plastics found as the casings on electronics are not recyclable, and the whole process is very tedious.  

Here at Business Telephone Sales we buy a lot of phones and equipment that people are no longer using, but we do not buy all of it.  I get asked all of the time what to do with equipment that no one wants.  As the "green movement" grows fewer people want to just throw away their old phone systems and them end up at the dump like typical food waste.  

The kicker to this situation is, people want to help the earth but at what cost.  In Sarasota County, where we are located, residents can drop off household electronics at the Sarasota County's Household Chemical Collection Centers.  However, this is only open for residents with proof of address and if you have a copier you must go to one specific location and it will cost you to dispose of it.  With this economy most people are not going to go out of their way to drop off a copier and then have to pay for it to be properly disposed of.  On top of that, I would guarantee most people in this county have no idea these specific centers even exist!  I had to look to find them.  There are plenty of people who donate such items to Goodwill, Habitat for Humanity, and other charitable causes and that is awesome. With donating someone may be able to reuse your product and that completely eliminates the waste altogether, and if not the responsibility of properly disposing of these electronic items falls on them.

Now, to businesses.  I have found a very helpful link from the US Government's Environmental Protection Agency's website which will show local places for business to properly dispose of their electronic waste.  

http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/materials/ecycling/live.htm

Also, I have come across a woman owned business in San Diego whose motto is, "Creating a GREENER today from Yesterdays world!" Her company is trying to make recycling easier for everyone. You can find out more about Envirogreen Recycling Services and what they can do to help those in the San Diego area at www.envirogreenrecycling.org.  

All over the internet there are states, cities, and private companies advertising how to get rid of unwanted electronics, now we just have to promote this valuable information.  The easier it becomes for companies to be responsible in this area, the more common practice  it becomes the less full of toxic battery waste and other such harmful toxins the much better off everyone will be in the future.  

Please take time to find out how to get rid of those left over phones that we did not buy from you before just throwing them in a dumpster.