A great deal of old, unwanted electronic products sit and gather dust in storage waiting to be thrown away or recycled.
It is estimated that as many as three-fourths of the computers sold in the United States alone are sitting in garages and basements, unused.
When they are finally disposed of, many of them end up being taken to landfills, incinerators or even exported to Asia.
A very popular destination for e-waste is China where the equipment is stripped down by laborers and then the harmful and toxic waste is dumped into the environment.
The incinerated e-waste releases toxic substances into the environment that can end up in the food chain and consumed.
For every one million desktop computers that are recycled properly, there is a reduction of greenhouse gas that is equivalent to the annual emissions of over 17,000 vehicles.
This illustrates that there are very clear benefits to e-waste recycling.
Beside just the reduction of harmful toxins-landfills are spared and materials that are valuable are recovered and used again to make new products.
Environmentalists are very concerned with the potential long-term health and environmental impact resulting from heavy metals-especially lead, that is leaching into the ground water in landfills.
Consumers should be made aware of the fact that many manufacturers have programs that will take unwanted equipment.
These companies then take the various parts from the devices for re-use or they recycle them.
Most cities today offers programs that allows residents to properly dispose of unwanted computers, keyboards, VCR's, fax machines, video game consoles and televisions.
Many community businesses will also take these items to repair and donate to charity.
It is very important that individuals and companies take more responsibility when disposing of electronic devices.
Recycling advertising campaigns must keep informing and educating the public concerning proper e-waste recycling practice.