Posted: 11/10/2015
UT Southwestern, Texas Woman’s University co-sponsors
Picked up the latest smartphone, tablet, laptop or other digital device? Great. Now what’s going to happen to your old one?
Will it join the more than 2 million tons of eWaste dumped into U.S. landfills each year? According to the Texas Campaign for the Environment, Americans discard 400 million pieces of electronics each year. Such waste not only leads to environmental contamination by the toxic materials contained in old computers, televisions and phones, but it also wastes potentially recoverable resources.
That’s the reason Parkland Health & Hospital System is hosting an eWaste recycling event in conjunction with this year’s America Recycles Day. The recycling event, sponsored by Parkland, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Texas Woman’s University and ECS Refining, will take place from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., Friday Nov. 13 at the medical district’s BioCenter parking lot, 2330 Inwood Road, Dallas, 75235.
“The objective of this drive is to provide individuals with the safest, most eco-friendly manner to dispose of unwanted or broken personal electronics, which can include iPods, cell phones, laptops, desktops, batteries, cameras, essentially anything that plugs in or runs on batteries,” said Emma Donachie, Parkland Waste Stream Coordinator.
Officials with the state of Texas earlier this year reported that over 94 million pounds of eWaste had already been recycled this year, but that is only about 1 percent of the overall recycling stream, according to Donachie.
With Texas ranking as one of the top states in identity theft complaints, Donachie said it also is important to find a secure place to discard equipment that might contain confidential material. ECS Refining, one of the event sponsors, guarantees that hard drives or anything potentially containing personal information will be shredded at its site in Mesquite.
For more about the eWaste recycling event, call 214.590.1342. Learn more about Parkland's sustainability efforts.