Are you stuck with an old computer or other disused electronic gadgets and don´t know where to dump them, without harming the environment?
Great news is that IT retailer Incredible Connection has come to the rescue by offering special disposal facilities for end-of-life consumer technology items (e-waste) at each of its 55stores nationwide by the end of October 2009.
The service, known as EnviroConnection and offered in partnership with accredited electronic waste disposal company, Desco, will enable consumers to get rid of obsolete items of technology in an environmentally safe way – whether or not they were bought at Incredible Connection.
“In the past several years, we’ve mounted ‘trade-in months’ in which consumers have been able to bring in their old technology and get, inreturn, significant discounts on new purchases,” says Incredible Connection’s Chief Executive, Dave Miller.
“We’ve then refurbished what we could, passing it on to underprivileged organisations in need of technology, and disposed ofthe rest in such a way that the environment has been safeguarded.Specifically, our aim has been to keep e-waste out of landfills.”
“The concept caught on very strongly with consumers, who are becoming progressively more environmentally aware, and we’ve recentlyseen an increase in the number of calls from the public asking us where they can safely dispose of their e-waste.“
Environmental impact
According to Miller there are few e-waste recycling depots and they are not easily accessible to the public.
“We felt that, as a major vendor of technology, we should step up to the plate and take responsibility for helping to dispose of the waste in the value chain in which we participate in an environmentally constructive way.”
As a result, special disposal bins designed by Desco to be easily loaded into trucks have been distributed to each Incredible Connection store.
“The bins are quite large so, depending on the size of the store,they’ll either be on display within the store or be placed in our workshops at the back of each store,” Miller says.
“If consumers don´t find the bins on display, they can simply leave the items they want to get rid of at our workshops and our staff will make sure they are put in the bins.”
The projected volume of items will make refurbishment of individual items impossible, especially as most manufacturers are now simply swapping entire units rather than incurring the cost of repair.
“Also, with technology changing and being updated so rapidly,getting significant life and value out of older devices is becoming much more difficult,” Miller says.
“The real – and very substantial – benefit of EnviroConnection is diminishing the impact on the environment of obsolete technology.Specifically, enabling the public to be pro-active in disposing safely,cleanly, and efficiently of unwanted technology makes an enormous positive contribution to the environment.”
Source: News24
(Thanks Amz)
The liveeco team
