My closet was never big enough when I was young. Not because I had too many clothes or boxes of memories stored away, but because my dad thought it was the ideal place for hiding away his many prehistoric computers that had long since reached the end of their lives.
Unknowing of how worthless the IT jungle in my closet really was, I believed him when he said how important it was to keep. That is until, after being tricked into keeping it there from junior high through now, I realized my dad never once had to extract that all-important file to solve a family crisis. My closet was an electronic junk pile.
It was time for it to go.
But getting rid of a heaping mound of computer equipment opens a nest of many potentially dangerous environmental problems.
According to Steve Brachman, solid and hazardous waste specialist at the Solid and Waste Education Center for UW Extension, my closet iss full of e-waste.""
""'E-waste' is sort of a grab-all category of materials that have been developed over the last 30 years or so that contain electrical components, which are potentially hazardous when disposed of either in landfills or incinerated,"" Brachman said.
Computer equipment, such as CRT monitors, hard drives and processors, can contain a number of heavy metals, according to Brachman, including lead, mercury and cadmium, all of which are harmful to the environment and humans if disposed of improperly.
Brachman said that after a long period of time, heavy metals could leak into the water system that breaks down the trash inside a landfill, which can affect the environment if not treated properly.
""Incinerating those products can cause air emission releases of those metals as well, which is probably even worse,"" Brachman added.
And, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, that is the fate for most electronics. A 2008 EPA report estimated that only 18 percent of end-of-life electronic products in the U.S. were recycled in 2007, while the remainder were trashed.
CRT monitors are the worst case, as more and more are being replaced by LCD monitors. Of the total weight of computer-related equipment disposed of from 2007, 40 percent was made up of CRT monitors, all of which contain anywhere from two to seven pounds of lead.
But the e-waste problem can be avoided by increased recycling of electronic products, as they can be recycled very efficiently, according to Brachman.
""[E-waste is] very thoroughly recycled,"" Brachman said. ""All the metals are recaptured, and in many situations, there are advanced plastic recycling programs in place to capture the plastic products, and that's pretty much the bulk of [the e-waste], as well as glass products that are there that may contain lead.""
And that is exactly what UW-Madison's program Surplus with a Purpose does for all of the UW and various state agencies, according to Matthew Thies, store manager of the UW-SWAP.
According to Thies, SWAP was founded to keep recyclables, including e-waste, out of landfills for UW-Madison and, later, the City of Madison.
""We're all about trying to be good environmental stewards for not only the UW, but Verona and the city of Madison, really setting an example as an organization,"" Thies said.
Seeing the SWAP warehouse gives a good picture of how daunting a task that is. Wandering the various aisles is like browsing a super-sized garage sale. In the front, computer equipment is readily available for discounted prices, but when I ventured to the back, images of my computer-filled closet began haunting me.
Massive pallets of CRT monitors and computers wrapped together landmine the floor, and to the side, open computers are operated on to save them from the recycler.
Repairing products is crucial to SWAP, as fixed computers can be used by a new business or person, which is one of SWAP's main objectives.
""There's absolutely nothing better than having something that's going to get thrown away go from one department to another,"" Thies said.
If products cannot be repaired, they are shipped to various recyclers that can properly dispose of them.
But SWAP only takes their items from UW-Madison and the state, so people or businesses looking to recycle their products cannot use their service.
That's where Cascade Asset Management comes in, a corporation devoted to recycling e-waste that was started by the same founder of the SWAP, Neil Peters-Michaud.
CAM processes products a step further than SWAP. According to Toral Jha, industrial relations representative of CAM, they shred IT products down to 50 or 60 different commodity streams, which are sent to various recyclers that can transform them back into their fundamental state.
According to Jha, CAM goes through about 10 million pounds of IT equipment a year.
""Ninety-nine percent of what comes in here goes back out as a commodity, goes back out to be sold,"" Jha said.
CAM typically offers their services to businesses only, but for students, they partner with the UW Bookstore to offer a drop-off program semi annually, where students can make sure their equipment is disposed of safely, according to Jha.
Both the SWAP and CAM work to combat the growing e-waste problem, as the number of electronics being produced and disposed of increases each year, according to the EPA. They're protecting the environment from the problem buried in my closet.
