Don't recycle 'e-waste' with haste, activists warn

— -- Consumers saddled with old cellphones, TVs and computers are flocking to electronics recycling events, which have sprung up in more than 1,000 communities over the past four years.

But don't be fooled, activists warn. Items collected at free events are sometimes destined for salvage yards in developing nations, where toxins spill into the water, the air and the lungs of laborers paid a few dollars per day to extract materials.

"If nobody is paying (the collectors) to take this stuff, especially if they're getting a lot of televisions, then they are very likely exporting because that's how they make the economics work," says Barbara Kyle, national coordinator of the Electronics TakeBack Coalition, a San Francisco-based advocacy group.

"E-waste," or electronics trash, is piling up faster than ever, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Americans discarded 47 million computers in 2005, up from 20 million in 1998. Factor in other forms of electronics, and the nation now dumps between 300 million and 400 million electronic items per year, according to estimates from the EPA and the TakeBack Coalition.

E-waste disposal rates are poised to accelerate in the run-up to a nationwide switch to digital television signals in February. Less than 20% of all electronic waste is recycled, according to the EPA. The rest ends up in landfills.

Still, recycling rates are rising. Free drop-off events, designed primarily to keep lead, mercury, barium and other e-waste toxins out of local landfills, have attracted overflow crowds in the past year. Last fall, organizers at a Bloomington, Minn., event planned to fill 34 trailers but ended up filling 85.

In March, piles of electronics lay in a Seattle Pacific University parking lot for days as organizers struggled to handle the unexpectedly large volume. In April, a Washington, D.C., event snarled traffic for hours as some 4,000 people lined up to drop off items.

When recyclers cart away e-waste, what happens next can vary widely, according to Bruce Parker, president of the National Solid Waste Management Association (NSWMA), a trade association that includes electronics recyclers. Some separate glass, metal and plastics, and then make sure that most reusable materials find their way into new products. Others bring their loads to brokers, who ship contents overseas to salvagers, who pay to mine mountainous piles for precious metals and other valuables.