The Earth Day committee of TREES, Inc., in partnership with Indiana State University, sponsored five e-scrap collection events in the spring and summer of 2007. Then, on January 12, 2008 TREES, in partnership with the Indiana State University Recycling Center and Recycle Force of Indianapolis, conducted an e-scrap collection event, coined "Santa's E-Scrap Super Saturday", in Terre Haute that was completely overwhelming in community response. It has been estimated that over 500 vehicles passed through the drop-off lanes in the parking lot at 9th and Chestnut St. It will be the standard by which any future events are evaluated.
E-Scrap is a special problem for the environment because electronic equipment and games contain toxic materials such as lead and mercury that should not be put in the landfill for fear they will eventually leach out into people's water supplies or into streams and rivers. The threat is real and potentially life-threatening for people, animals, and plant materials.
The second reason that electronic trash should not be put in the landfill is because they also contain valuable metals and materials. These include gold and silver, in small amounts, and other materials that can be recycled and recovered for use in new electronics and other manufactured items. Once buried, it would be virtually impossible to reclaim these materials.
DTV will have a huge impact on
E-Scrap. This site offers valuable
insight to the conversion process
