If you’re reading this page, there’s a good chance that you own your own computer and an almost-as-good chance that you either already have or will eventually trade it in for something new.

But what happens to old computers? Do they wind up in an electronic elephant burial ground? No, most often they wind up in a land fill.  According to a 1997 Carnegie Mellon study, some 150 million dead but not decaying PC’s will be clogging our landfills by 2005.

And those computers will have been thrown away by ordinary people, because ordinary people are exempt from EPA regulations. Businesses, which must comply with EPA regs. have to treat their old PCs as Hazardous Materials because, among other things, there are up to eight pounds of lead in the typical computer monitor!

In some parts of the country, entrepreneurs have started recycling old computers.  A company in Massachusetts is grinding up all that beige plastic and using it to make pot-hole filler.

In Lake County, LCCC doesn’t know of anyone who is actively recycling computers, but the people at Lake County Solid Waste Management (352-343-3776) will treat your old electronic equipment with the hazardous-materials respect it deserves.  So give them a call before you put that old computer in the trash.

(And if you’re not from Lake County, FL but happen to be reading this page, look for a recycler in your area or contact your local DEP.  A PC may have an 18-month half-life, but it’s not biodegradable)

For more information, visit Please Dispose of Properly..

and for a detailed, but very different, analysis of what’s inside your computer and why you should dispose of it carefully check out http://www.svtc.org/cleancc/eccc.htm at the Silicon Valley Toxic Coalition Site

Lake County,
FL