In honor of Earth Day, I thought it would be appropriate to talk about the electronic waste we are creating in this world and what we can do to stop it. Did you know electronics are the fastest growing waste segment? I am guilty of hoarding electronic devices and all but I had no idea how much waste tech creates!
ecoATM recently released a study with these interesting facts are creating electronic waste:
- 57 percent of American device owners have idle cell phones in their homes, yet only 22 percent state they have previously recycled cell phones they no longer use.
- Nearly four in ten device owners (39 percent) have at least two cell phones, if not more, collecting dust at home, yet less than half have sold, recycled or given their old smartphones to someone else after using it (49 percent).
- Less than half of device owners would consider recycling old gadgets (46 percent) even though most believe that recycling is good for the environment (86 percent), safe (80 percent) and worth doing (77 percent).
- When upgrading a device, 12 percent of device owners would consider throwing their old gadget away in the garbage and nearly one in three (30 percent) would just store it somewhere in their homes.
- Just over half of device owners know that it’s possible to recycle unwanted devices in drop-off bins inside cell phone provider stores (56 percent) or online trade-in programs (55 percent), while 20 percent know that automated recycling kiosks exist. That said, more than one in 10 (12 percent) incorrectly believe that placing old devices in any recycling bin (such as a curbside bin) could be a viable option.
Recycle your electronics responsibly! Learn more about ways to recycle your gadgets for cash at ecoATM and more.
*Methodology Note: The ecoATM Device Survey was conducted by Kelton Research between March 10th and March 17th and polled 1,018 nationally representative Americans aged 18 and older who own a smartphone, cell phone, MP3 player or tablet.