The Rethink Initiative: Working to Eliminate E-Waste

By Carol Johnson

Every day brings the introduction of an innovative and exciting new technology that will help people do things faster, easier, or more efficiently. The plethora of new products introduced each year is growing by leaps and bounds. But unfortunately, the faster those new products emerge, the faster the outdated ones are ending up discarded in trash heaps.

Technology industry leaders have joined forces with government and environmental organizations to propose new solutions to the challenge of e-waste. Their combined efforts have been labeled the Rethink Initiative. The problem of throwing away outdated equipment is no small matter; hundreds of millions of computers, cell phones, video and stereo equipment, and other electronics either sit on shelves or end up in the garbage all across America every year. The Rethink Initiative hopes to educate and inspire consumers to make smart choices about how to dispose of their outdated equipment responsibly.

The Rethink Initiative is a combined effort between a host of corporate giants, including computer manufacturers such as Apple, IBM, Dell, HP, and Gateway; electronics manufacturers such as Toshiba and Motorola; cellular manufacturers such as Nokia and Verizon; and even retail giants such as Best Buy and Circuit City. With American consumers and businesses constantly upgrading and replacing to keep up with the endless new advances in productivity, learning, and entertainment, these companies are banding together to provide information, tools, and solutions to make it easy and even profitable for people to find new homes for outdated equipment by responsibly recycling unwanted products.

Some of the organizations involved with the Rethink Initiative offer their own recycling programs. The National Cristina Foundation (www.cristina.org) will match you with groups that need old hardware to provide job training for disabled people, and you get a tax write-off as a result of your donation. CollectiveGood (www.collectivegood.org) will take an old wireless cell phone and in return make a donation to the charity of your choice, from a list of over 300 charities. The Basel Action Network (www.ban.org) can provide a list of responsible electronics recyclers near you, so you can give old TVs and other electronics to someone who can harvest them for recyclable materials. Apple Computers offers free recycling of old PCs—regardless of their manufacturer—for customers who purchase a new Mac. The company has been named a "Forward Green Leader" by the Sierra Club, being recognized as one of the top ten environmentally progressive companies.

The issue of discarded computers and other electronics is not a trivial matter. People all around the world need to make changes right now in how they handle these products to help ensure a clean environment for future generations.