Save the Planet One Ink Jet Printer at a Time

December 17, 2009

As everyone on the planet buys an iPhone, electronic waste (E-waste) is becoming an ever growing and important issue. Electronic waste can be your old TV, that Bondi Blue iMac sitting in your garage, even your 12 month old iPhone you so callously replaced with a new iPhone 3GS.
E-waste, much more often than not, contains hazardous materials such as lead, halogens, mercury and sulfur. E-waste sitting in a landfill or on your curb will leech harmful toxins into the atmosphere and ground.
If the toxins aren’t enough reason to properly dispose of your E-waste, then think about all of the recyclable materials in your old computer or television. Many electronics contain copper, aluminum, and gold, to name a few precious elements. Properly disposing of your electronics will ensure that these limited resources can be reused for years to come.
After a very successful Summer of collecting e-waste, Lewis & Clark’s Information Technology department now gladly accepts E-Waste from the L&C Community year round. As an added service, we will attempt to erase your data from any collected computers. If we can’t, we’ll destroy your hard drives. We like hammers!
All e-waste delivered to IT is collected by one of a variety of companies specializing in electronic waste. The company for any one pick-up depends on which wants to charge us the least amount of money to haul away the trash-to-treasure junk. Then they do the fun work of dismantling or repairing our rejected electronics

We strongly encourage you to bring the following to the Information Technology Main Office:
Computers - desktops or laptops
Monitors
TVs
Cell Phones
Printers
A/V Equipment
Portable electronics

We do not accept the following:
Purely electrical items - lamps, heaters etc
Microwaves
Refrigerators
Ovens or other large household appliances
If you don’t think you’d find your item for sale in the Fred Meyer electronics department, we probably will turn you away.