We all know what recycling is. We know how critical it is towards sustaining the healthy environment the Earth has provided for us. We’ve seen initiatives for recycling plastics, paper, and all sorts of materials. Yet, we’ve ignored a big piece of waste. Technology. Society wants all of the latest updates and machines. But, this desire involves throwing out their current pieces of technology, and unfortunately, most people don’t recycle them properly. They may think that eventually the piece of equipment will be dealt with, but sometimes it isn’t. That’s why it’s our duty to make sure we properly recycle technology, and below we talk about reasons why.

A big factor of recycling is that it takes up much less energy than creating a product from raw materials. Same goes for technology. We can use parts that we recycle from old phones or computers and put them into new products. Often the parts in old pieces of technology work fine, and we can use them to make the cost of production much cheaper. Another factor is reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Recycling processes generally produce fewer greenhouse gasses than traditional manufacturing processes. This helps in mitigating climate change by reducing the overall carbon footprint of tech production.

Continuing on, let’s talk about environmental protection. Recycling tech helps reduce the amount of electronic waste (e-waste) that ends up in landfills. E-waste contains hazardous materials that can contaminate soil and water. Many tech products contain valuable materials such as gold, silver, copper, and rare earth elements. Recycling allows these materials to be recovered and reused, conserving natural resources and reducing the need for mining.

These are just a couple reasons why recycling technology is important. We can obviously go more in depth about each factor and talk about more factors, but the important thing to consider is that recycling technology is a major benefit. It doesn’t cost anything, doesn’t take up more time. It’s a good habit everyone should do, and it would greatly help reduce the waste crisis the Earth is dealing with.