Some Facts About Electronic Waste

Fact: Electronic Waste (e-waste) is the fastest growing segment of the waste stream in the United States. This category includes computers, televisions, VCR’s, DVD players, cell phones, and other electronic products.

Fact: According to the EPA, Americans generated more than 3 million tons of e-waste in 2007. Of that amount, only 410,000 tons (less than 14%) were recycled. The rest found its way into landfills and incinerators.

Fact: Each year more than 400 million used printer cartridges are discarded into our nations landfills.

Fact: In 2009, the amount of gold recovered from discarded electronic products in the United States was equivalent to the amount of gold mined from over 2 million tons of raw ore.

Fact: A ton of used cell phones (about 6,000 handsets) contains more than $15,000 worth of precious metals.

A Growing Concern

As technology continues to evolve and people throw out their old electronics to replace them with the latest upgrades, the problem of e-waste can only continue to grow worse.

While the government has tried to “fix” the problem, this has amounted to little more than a bandage. As the outflow of electronic scrap continues, e-waste is becoming a global concern due to export of discarded electronics to countries where there are no means to properly deal with it.

A Step In The Right Direction

We simply cannot wait for someone else to fix the e-waste problem. Grass roots efforts at the local level by organizations like Motor City Free Geek have shown great promise in the fight to reduce the impact the electronic revolution has had on our environment.

At Motor City Free Geek we believe the answer is to reclaim unwanted electronic goods. Computers in a landfill are bad for the environment, and they’re not helping anybody. By refurbishing donated computers and loading them with the latest open source software, like Ubuntu Linux and Open Office we can grant them to deserving organizations where they will continue to be useful.

Our Vision For The Future

In 2008, Motor City Free Geek began as an experiment with open source (free) software, and its potential for widespread use and acceptance. In the course of investigating the possibilities, the issue of electronic waste came up time and again. This gave birth to the idea that promoting and using open source software in refurbished computers would also help to alleviate the e-waste problem. 

Our vision for the future is a cooperative effort across the country and around the world to keep old electronics out of the trash, and put them to good use. Donations from concerned citizens and wise investors, coupled with the use of open source software make this a possibility. We also hope to one day see a system that uses our newest technology, like robotics for instance, to deal with old technology in a responsible way.