jjvjessica
Registered: November 2012
City/Town/Province: Knoxville
Posts: 1
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A normal Wednesday in class was the day I realized that electronic waste is a much bigger deal than society believes. While I was sitting in my class listening to my professor, she informed the class of third world countries, such as Indonesia and Bangladesh, whose oceans and land is being consumed by electronic waste. America’s electronic waste is sent to these countries on barges, and there job is to break it down. The most protection the people receive to protect themselves from the harmful chemicals would be a pair of goggles. That is surely not enough to protect them from the harsh chemicals. Not only are they paying for our mistakes, but they are left to deal with the issue directly.
Right away, it clicked. I decided that my my E-Waste drive was a motivation for not only myself, but also the community. I wanted people to be aware of the harmful toxins that effect so many people on this Earth. Sadly, a country’s environmental issueseffect the globe. No barriers can be set on the environment. These items do not decompose, and my goal was to establish focus on the neglected issue. I
The most important part of electronic recycling is to simply care about how what our environment will turn into without our world receiving proper care. The Earth is not invincible. An urgent confrontation was needed for my town. I took a day or two to plan dates, organize collection locations, and set up pick up days for the E-Waste drive, and then I set my mission into action. Every day, I would stop at local stores and inform them on my drive. Every time that I went to a house, they were always excited and intrigued. Once I started interacting with the community, I realized how many people had E-Waste that was laying around or going to be thrown away. Also, I went door to door around my neighborhood, located garage sales, and asked students and faculty at my school if they had any unused electronics that were damaged or unused that needed to be recycled. Everyone had broken CD’s, old Gameboys, or miscellaneous electronics that needed to be tossed. Some days, I dedicated the entire day to collecting these items. Although the task was tiresome, I knew I was helping the environment. It might not have changed the world, but I pray that my E-waste drive influenced other around me. I met amazing people through my volunteer work who were interested in what I was doing and did whatever they could to help. Many employees of local stores began holding items that they typically threw away for my drive. I would pick it up every day or two, and he would cheerfully discuss that my drive influenced him to begin recycling not only electronics, but also cardboard, paper, and plastic. Typically, many people had numerous items laying around, and they just did not know where the items needed to go. My drive informed my town of places where they can recycle these items, which benefited the people and the Earth. There was a E-Waste tub set up for students which gradually filled up every other day. All of the electronics were held in boxes down in my basement. My entire basement was full, and my family didn’t mind one bit.There were nights when I tediously untangeled the cords, seperated them accordingly, counted all the items one by one, and carried them back into the basement(I undoubtedly gained some arm muscle). Once I hit the 2,000 item mark, The Daily Times reported and photographed my E-Waste drive to inspire others. Immediately, I was receiving about five to ten emails a day asking if I could pick up their electronics, which I accepted with alacrity. Excitingly, the word kept spreading in our small town of my drive, and people I have never spoken to were congratulating me on the E-Waste drive. I felt a sense of accomplishment. The spark was lit in a thirty minute class, and from then on, 2,857 electronic items have been collected. Not only did I make my town aware of the issues, but I have continued awareness through the Green Initiative club, which recycles not only electronics, but also paper, plastic, and cans. At this moment, I felt that all my hard work had been noticed. Although I am just one girl in a large world, I know I have helped.
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