this post was submitted on 26 Mar 2024
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Because it’s a PITA to recycle e-waste, at least where I live in the US. My municipality charges extra to drop off e-waste, and they only have a few days a year where they have dropoff at the local transfer center to get rid of e-waste.
Hope you have the day off and the cash to pay to get rid of whatever it is.
If you have Best Buys they have e-waste recycling available year round. It doesn't really solve the problem though, it just ships it off to poorer countries.
I’ll have to check that out, I assume it’s for a fee? Thanks.
It's free. I believe, Best Buy packages it all up and ships it to China. I believe Chinese companies pay for the waste, and then pay very poor people to pick through it for valuable (and toxic) metals. A lot of the metals etc. end up in the groundwater. In other words, it's still mostly pollution, but dropping it off at Best Buy makes it someone else's pollution...
Not sure how to feel about all of it to be honest. I still recycle at Best Buy, but it's kinda like recycling plastic in the municipal recycling, I know most of it ends up in the garbage, and thus as pollution, ultimately. But I still put it where it's 'supposed' to go.
Yeah, I can't say I've ever tried recycling large items. But I've dropped boxes off at the stores here in the Midwest, and they've never hassled me over misc. electronic garbage. They used to have kiosks in the entryway. Or maybe still do at some stores.