Some of the greatest threats to future resources come from things we throw away everyday. We buy these things without thinking what will happen to them when they become outdated. Most of us are also unaware the hazardous effects of these things. Household electronics, computers, and batteries contain dangerous chemicals. If they are sent to a local landfill, they may leak through the bottom barrier and pollute the groundwater. This can contaminate everything from soil in which we grow our food, to the water we drink. This can be a risk to our health. Can you believe that your old computer affects your health negatively?  Throwing away items that could be recycled diminishes energy, water, and natural resources that could be saved by recycling.

So exactly what can be recycled from a computer? As residents in Ankara, Turkey, we have been trying to find out the answer of this question for a few weeks and the answer is really striking: almost 99% of the components that make up a PC can be recycled. Therefore, by recycling we can avoid serious toxins, chemicals and heavy metals from going to landfill and polluting our environment.

In today’s world, the more technology we have, the more e-waste we create. People have been using various kinds of electrical equipments for many years and the amount is increasing day by day. However, most of the people just use these equipments and tend to throw them away after using them. They do not think about the hazardous effects that these materials create. E-waste contains some valuable and recoverable materials such as aluminum, copper, gold, silver, plastics, and ferrous metals. In order to conserve natural resources and the energy needed to produce new electronic equipment from virgin resources, electronic equipment can be reused and recycled instead of being landfilled. On the other hand, e-waste also contains toxic and hazardous materials including mercury, lead, cadmium, beryllium, chromium, and chemical flame retardants, which have the potential to leach into our soil and water. For these reasons, everybody who creates these e-wastes have to think about the benefits and advantages of recycling e-waste.

Firstly, if we recycle e-waste, we can conserve natural resources. Recycling recovers valuable materials from old electronics that can be used to make new products. As a result, we save energy, reduce pollution, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and save resources by extracting fewer raw materials from the earth.

Secondly, by recycling e-waste, we protect our surroundings. Safe recycling of outdated electronics promotes sound management of toxic chemicals such as lead and mercury. Moreover, we help others. As Gürçağ schools, we sent our old computers to the schools in the eastern part of our country. Donating your used electronics benefits your community by passing on ready-to-use those who need it. So, instead of throwing away and polluting the environment, why not helping others? Moreover, recycling e-waste saves landfill space. The landfills are getting bigger day by day and there are few places to keep the dump. If we don’t recycle e-waste, it will be a big problem to keep them in landfills. As the technology improves, the amount of e-waste that we create increases.

Thirdly, by recycling e-waste, lots of job opportunities come. In our country, we have realized that there are lots of places that recycle e-waste and there are lots of people who work there. We also visited a recycling company in Ankara to see how e-waste is recycled. They showed us how they distilled the materials in a computer and a mobile phone. There were lots of people working there. Therefore, recycling e-waste creates jobs for professional recyclers and create new markets.

Taking everything mentioned above into consideration, as an environmentalist team, we believe that it can’t be that difficult to recycle e-waste. There are lots of places which collect  e-waste and recycle them. To broaden our horizons, our teachers organized a trip to the Turkish Competition Authority and we had a chance to have some information about the legal regulations on recycling e-waste in Turkey. It was good to hear that our government has been dealing with e-waste management. We also informed our friends at school by giving presentations to them. We prepared some posters and displayed them on the notice boards of our school. Our studies were also written in a local magazine in our neighbourhood. The residents in our school’s neighbourhood hadn’t thought about recycling e-waste before. We interviewed with the people in our families and neighbours. Moreover, an expert from the Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning came to our school and informed us about the negative effects of e-waste. We believe that it mustn’t be that difficult to take an old computer to a recycling company. We are all aware of the fact that before e-waste management will become a big global threat, everybody should take action!