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Everyone remembers the redundant PC in the corner of the office. Always there… Everyone shrugs their shoulders when asked who should get rid of it. Properly disposing of broken or redundant hardware has now become the norm, and the sight of an old PC gathering dust is less common than it once was. The rate of technology updates, however, has not changed—leaving us with drawers full of old cables, chargers, and phones.
It’s time to ditch the drawer and carry those cables and chargers to a recycling point!
This is the argument behind e-Waste Day, an international event promoting the recycling of redundant tech so that the critical raw materials (CRM) can be extracted and reused. Now in its eighth year, the event calls for individuals and businesses around the world to make a concerted effort to recycle any piece of broken or redundant hardware for the raw materials, but also to ensure the non-recyclable components are disposed of in a safe and compliant way.
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The initiative has sparked several national campaigns to encourage people to recycle their e-waste. One such campaign, the Great Cable Challenge based in the UK, promotes the need for all of us to make small actions to achieve big change. Focusing on copper specifically, the Great Cable Challenge calls for people to gather their redundant or broken cables and recycle them so that the copper and other CRMs can be extracted and reused. They provide links on their website as to where people can recycle their items depending on where they live.
Many are taking the cause one step further and demanding that governments and legislative bodies counter software obsoletion to avoid large amounts of hardware e-waste. This move has been prompted by Microsoft’s refusal to support Windows 10; therefore, making 400 million computers world-wide obsolete. As well as recycling redundant hardware, campaigners want law makers to discourage software obsoletion for perfectly usable hardware and to ensure that big business upholds commitments to the circular economy.
So, on International e-Waste Day, celebrate with your friends and family by gathering up unused hardware and giving it the appropriate (environmentally responsible) send-off it deserves!
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