E-Trash consists of unwanted used electronics This can mean computers, TVs, music players, or anything with a circuit board E-Trash accounts for only 2% of trash in Americas landfills However, it accounts for 70% of toxic waste in America Currently, less than 10% of used electronics are recycled The rest is either stockpiled to disposed of improperly E-Trash is becoming more and more prevalent as technology advances and makes older technology obsolete Untreated E-Trash can be a major source of toxins and carcinogens Another concern is lead, mercury, and cadmium found in most E-Trash 38 separate chemical agents are found in the average E-Trash unit, such as a computer One computer monitor can contain as much as 6% of its weight in lead One entire computer can contain as much as 4-6 pounds of lead None of it is biodegradable, and as we continue to throw away more and more E-Trash, our landfills become more deadly to the environment E-Trash can be a great source of raw materials, such as gold, silver, titanium, aluminum, tin, iron, zinc, and copper As the price of said materials continues to rise, recycling E-Trash is becoming more acceptable and much easier Another option to recycling is reusing Many organizations collect used electronics then re-sell them for profit No electronic device is ever truly useless, and most devices can be re-sold This option saves money, time, and the environment Most modern E-Trash recycling plants are more or less un- manufacturing plants They take E-Trash units and break them down into separate components, then harvest the new raw material This is why E-Trash recycling can often cost a small fee, as the recycler has to pay for the labor cost of breaking down E-Trash into its components Dedicated E-Waste recycling facilities are somewhat rare in the U.S. at the time There are many plants that, rather than truly recycle the waste, they ship it to third world countries where environmental laws are more lax and labor is cheaper Currently, 50-80% of E-Trash being recycled isnt, and is simply exported to third-world countries Usually these developing countries have weak labor laws, and workers are directly exposed to harmful materials such as lead and mercury This is often why the reuse/resale of E-Trash is stressed This year, there are nearly twice as many obsolete computers as there are citizens in the United States As new technology is developed at this rapid pace, E-Trash is produced even faster in the form of obsolete electronics The amount of these obsolete electronics will steadily increase, because electronics companies have a policy called planned obsoleteness This means the make electronics knowing they will be obsolete in a given amount of time, therefore they increase profit