Computers have become a major part of our daily routine in the U.S. From the buzz of our alarm clock to the sleep timer on our television, we come in contact with dozens, maybe even hundreds, of electronic products every day. Cell phones, laptops, keyboards, mice, printers, telephones, VCRs, DVD players, game consoles, etc. There seems to be no end to the list. Many of us buy the new model as it comes out or simply replace our broken devices as needed. What then? What do we do with the old one?
Disposing of old and obsolete electronic products (at least the ones that didn’t sell on eBay or that garage sale you had) is a serious, often over-looked, issue in the U.S. and the problem is growing exponentially. Our country throws out about 400 million units per year and worldwide, about 4,000 tons of “e-waste” is discarded every hour. Many of these devices contain toxic, harmful chemicals and materials that can cause major damage to our environment. So the question is “how can I properly discard my old electronics legally and easily?”
One of the main reasons that I upgraded to new PCs over the years was hard drive space. My first computer held less than a CD of information. The next one, less than a DVD. So on and so on. Until recently, it really wasn’t affordable to add more hard drive space or storage to a computer. Within the last 2 years, the price of this storage has dropped like a lead balloon. Now I can keep every song, TV show and movie I ever dreamed of and I would like to continue to add more. There is one major hurdle to this thought process however. How do I take it all with me?
