Recycling 101 in Today’s Electronic World

Recycling, a term that grew to international importance almost four decades ago, is commonly represented by images of blue plastic bins and bottle drives. However, in a 21st century, electronic-dominated world, recycling solely aluminum cans or plastic water bottles is not the only game in town. “E-waste,” waste from printer cartridges, mobile devices, and other small electronics, needs to become a more integral part of the recycling equation. In fact, trace materials from E-waste accounts for 70% of toxic waste in landfills. This waste, even in small doses, can leach out of landfills and contaminate soil and drinking water, which is why, we, here at the Earth Day Network, want to give a shout-out to FundingFactory®for their recycling successes and participation in our A Billion Acts of Green®campaign.

Funding Factory® is a free recycling fundraiser for schools, nonprofits, and charities. Participating organizations can earn points redeemable for cash or products by recycling empty printer cartridges, cell phones, and other small electronics from their communities and supporters. Sounds like something your school could do, right?! We thought so too.

For the whole month of April in honor of Earth Day, FundingFactorypledged one Act of Green for every 100 used printer cartridges, cell phones, and small electronics received. FundingFactory estimates that they received approximately 300,000 items of recycled material in the month of April, which totals 3,000 Acts of Green! Not only are they pledging many Acts of Green, FundingFactoryplans to plant one tree per every 100 items too—That’s 3,000 trees!

Now even though Earth Day and April are over, we still want to encourage participation in such important recycling efforts. To get involved in FundingFactory programs, schools and other nonprofits can learn more here: www.fundingfactory.com/register!

Want to learn more about how this process works? Click here to check out this cool Infographic on E-waste!