(by Insa) Do you have a mobile phone, e-book reader, computer or television? How often do you replace them? And what do you do with them when it’s time to upgrade?
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A literature review in this article reported that the environmental impact of a single e-reader (including the use of minerals, water and fossil fuels) is about the same as 50 books. The article also found that at present the average e-reader is used less than two years before it is replaced.
So get reading – and make your e-reader break even – by reading some of the 500,00+ e-books currently available through the library!
When it is time to upgrade your e-reader/computer/printer/mobile phone make sure that it doesn’t end up in landfill and leach harmful toxins like mercury and lead into the soil and water supply – recycle it! You can drop e-waste off for free at a number of drop-off points. You can recycle old mobile phones (all makes and models) – and thereby help save gorilla habitat – by taking them to a mobile muster drop-off point or downloading a reply paid label and posting them in.
Want more info about e-waste? Watch The Story of Electronics
Image: Old mobile phones at a market. (Matthijs /Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
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