GREEN YOUR: OFFICE

Yesterday The Story of Electronics was released by The Story of Stuff Project.  I hastily posted it to my blog and proceeded to spam Facebook and Twitter with links to it, because it’s something I think everyone should see.  What?  You haven’t seen it yet?  Go HERE, watch it, then come back and continue reading.

Seriously, go now.

The video brings up a side of plastic that I had not yet considered.  The human impact.

We know plastic affects us by leaching BPA, phthalates and other nasties while in use, but it’s the after-life effects I haven’t given much thought to.

I’m not talking about remaining around – not degrading – for a bazillion years, clogging up landfills, polluting our oceans and killing wildlife.  I think about that all the time.

I’m referring to what happens when we recycle the stuff.

You’re a good person.  You want to do the right thing.  You care about the environment and welfare of others.  So you place your plastic in the recycling bin, like we were taught to do, and take your electronics to an e-waste collection and feel good about doing it, right?

That’s what I do.

But, then what?  Where do your recyclables go?

They get shipped overseas to poor countries for poor people to deal with.  These people are overwhelmed with all our junk, er, recyclables.

They sift through them, unprotected, pulling out any valuables and burn the rest.  Burn! Releasing toxins and polluting the air.

Not just their air, by the way, although they get the brunt of it, our air.  Air is not stationary.  It moves.  Eventually making its way back over here, where the source of pollution originated.

What goes around comes around.

What’s not burnt is left to accumulate in large landfills.  Remember those nasties that leach out of plastic during use?  Well, guess what happens while it’s sitting in the landfill “being recycled”?  It continues to leach out toxic chemicals polluting the ground water.

Thanks to us, people in Guiyu, China don’t have clean air to breath or water to drink.

I would never purposely harm somebody.  Yet I am.

Every time I purchase a new gadget I’m exposing a family to lead, mercury, BPA, PCBs, dioxins.  All the things I try to protect my family from.  That doesn’t make me feel very good at all.

It gives the “latest and greatest” a whole new perspective, doesn’t it?  Is a new computer, cell phone, iPod really worth a human life?  I don’t think so.

I’m not telling you to give up all the things you love.  Certainly not.

I don’t own a cell phone or iPod {although I do have ‘used iPod’ on my Christmas list}, but my computer and I are attached at the hip.  I think my life would come to a screeching halt without it.  Seriously.

Some things you can do:

• Buy used – you’ll save money and send less materials overseas to be “recycled”
• Mend and Make do – what ever happened to fixing things?
• Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without – hold on to things longer; do you really need the latest and greatest when what you already own works just fine?

Take action:

• Email companies telling them you want genuine green products.  Use this handy form!
• Tell your members of Congress to support the bill to stop global e-waste dumping.  Click here!
• Recycle it right!  Check out this guide to recycling your electronics.
• Find greener products.  Find out what you can do at home, work, or school with resources from CEH (Center for Environmental Health)
• Connect with a group working on e-waste in your area.  Click here!

Watch The Story of Electronics and share with all your friends!

Tagged as: GREEN YOUR: ELECTRONICS, GREEN YOUR: OFFICE {COMPUTER}, PLASTIC {THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE}, THE 3 R’s {REDUCE REUSE RECYCLE}

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