Taking out the electronic trash

Written by Clayton Woullard
(cwoullard@mscd.edu)
Photo by Mark Farnik
(mfarnik@mscd.edu)

Apprentices save TVs, computers from landfills

Metro criminal justice major Brandon Rice had some dead cell phones, an old computer, and a PlayStation — and that was good news to Jesse Martinez and his team, who were educating people about e-cycling March 4 at the Tivoli Commons.

Martinez, a senator in the Student Government Assembly, is taking part in Metro’s Apprentice Challenge on Team Contender, the boys’ team. Last week, he was working to outdo Team Triple Threat, the girls’ team, on educating people about e-cycling.

At the rally, amid break dancers moving to the beats of DJ Dozens, Martinez and other members of his team informed students about e-cycling and signed them up to unload their defunct electronics for free at Comcast’s Englewood location on March 7. It normally costs $30-$50 to recycle electronics, Martinez said.

The City and County of Denver, Comcast, 9News, Waste Management and LG Electronics sponsored the event, one of five e-cycling drives held that morning around the metro area.

It is the second of four challenges the Apprentice teams must face this semester. The e-cycling mission had Team Contender first set up an information campaign that included a blog, online social media through Facebook and MySpace, a Twitter site and other online venues. According to the team’s blog, one TV contains eight pounds of lead and other toxic material.

Team Triple Threat was tasked with educating people about the benefits of e-cycling without using a shred of paper. Martinez’s team was slated to present to the Challenge judges March 13 on how their team did better at educating people about e-cycling and how successful they were at getting people to come to the March 7 event.

At the rally, students were asked to text 313131 and text five friends about the e-waste drop-off event later that week, and if they did, they were automatically entered to win four Colorado Rockies tickets. Anyone who came to the March 7 event was automatically entered to win Rockies tickets and the 500th car won a year of free Comcast cable TV service. Martinez said his team’s initial goal for the event was to see 500 cars and collect 1,000 screens and 40 tons of e-waste. They actually saw 4,908 cars and collected nearly 350 tons of e-waste.

“We’re excited,” Martinez said. “We were nervous at first because (of our location), but after seeing so many cars we were surprised by how many people showed up through our outreaching efforts.”

Rice said he wasn’t going to throw away his old technology because he knows the hazards it can cause to landfills. When he heard he could recycle it for free, he signed up to drop off his old electronics.

“I think it helps benefit the Earth,” Rice said. “I mean if you’re just going throw stuff in the junkyard … it’s never going decompose, so I think they’re helping out here.”

Martinez said many people have their old electronics stored somewhere in their house; they don’t know what to do with them and only 10 percent of the TVs and computers in American homes are recycled. Those that get thrown away make up 2 percent of the country’s landfills, but make up 70 percent of their toxic waste, he said.

Metro business management major Adam Ford, on March 4, said he was planning to bring some old cell phones to the drop-off event, but that he was initially planning to take them to a cell phone company’s store.

“It’s not only irresponsible not to recycle everything you possibly can in whatever manner is practical, but it’s actually overall, in the grand scheme of things, it’s more cost effective; it’s just the right thing to do,” Ford said. “It’s silly not to.”

A November 2008 60 Minutes segment showed the effects e-waste was having on the ecosystem and health of the inhabitants of one city in China and how Englewood - based company Executive Recycling was shipping e-waste collected at e-cycling drives to China. The company had a contract to recycle e-waste with the City and County of Denver, though that contract expired last year.

E-cycling drives have gained popularity in the past few years all across the nation, as the public becomes more aware of the harmful materials