E-waste is BAD for the planet. Check out why

By now, many of you have probably heard about or viewed The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard. The 2007 animated video, which exposes the real costs of our use-it and toss-it consumer-driven culture, has now been viewed over 12 million times by people in 223 countries and territories. Talk about viral! Since then, Leonard has created The Story of Stuff website, published a book on The Story Of Stuff, which delves further into the issues discussed in the video, and has produced four additional films. Her latest project, The Story of Electronics co-produced with the Electronics TakeBack Coalition, takes an 8-minute look at why our “Designed-for-the-Dump” world of electronics is toxic to people and the planet. All of you early adopters are probably cringing at the idea that someone might prevent you from getting the latest and greatest phones and computers. That’s not what anyone wants. But we can’t continue buying more and more electronics and then just dumping all of this toxic e-waste around the planet. First, we need responsible manufacturing (get rid of the toxins, please!) and then we need manufacturers to take responsibility for recycling their own products—using certified recyclers that don’t dump e-waste in other countries. For more information about how to recycle your electronics responsibly, visit the Electronics TakeBake website. In Washington State,  check out E-Cycle Washington. And please, watch out for fake recyclers!

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