It's almost clear that all charities, including yours, contribute to environmental degradation and climate change. This is due to the near impossibility of avoiding the production of e-waste.
What is e-waste?
The term "e-waste," short for "electronic waste," refers to discarded electronic equipment that is no longer functioning or usable. However, charities are more likely to produce e-waste in the form of outdated smartphones, laptops, and desktop computers. These can include televisions and other household goods.
Why does e-waste cause harm?
If not properly disposed of, these electrical gadgets can be immensely damaging to the environment, as well as dangerous to the health of people and wildlife. They frequently include hazardous elements including lead, mercury, and cadmium.
This is because, if disposed of in a landfill, the toxic substances they contain could contaminate surrounding water sources by leaching into the soil and groundwater. Incineration can release hazardous substances into the air, adding to air pollution and respiratory diseases, making it dangerous as well.
But, that just tells half of the tale. The likelihood is that every time your charity discards a dated smartphone, laptop, or desktop computer, a replacement will eventually be required. However, creating these electrical products requires producing significant volumes of carbon dioxide. This has an impact on climate change. Every tonne of electronic products produced, on average, results in one tonne of dangerous carbon dioxide emissions.
What can your nonprofit organization do to lessen the e-waste problem?
The first thing to think about is whether or not someone else could truly benefit from the electronic items your organization no longer needs.
This is crucial because if your electronic products can be sold or given to another person to use rather than ending up as e-waste, all environmental threats are eliminated at once. Also, when a phone or computer is given to someone else to use, it eliminates the need to make as many new ones, which lowers the quantity of carbon dioxide emissions produced.
Finding someone to accept the unwanted electronics for your charity
The good news is that getting rid of outdated equipment is not difficult thanks to the abundance of charities and other organizations that will take your computers and other electronic devices and find them new homes. This could occur in the UK or somewhere else in the world. They might be provided for free, but more often than not, they are sold with the proceeds going to regional charities.
Several of these will pick up at the location of your charity. They consist of:
· Electronics are gathered by WeeeCharity, which then sells or recycles them.
· Using a network of charity stores, Reuse Network collects old items, including IT equipment, and resells them for less money.
· The National Device Bank of the Good Things Foundation refurbishes equipment and offers it free to neighborhood organizations.
· Computers for Charity provides affordable used computer hardware and software.
· Donations of unwanted laptops, PCs, and other IT equipment are made to charities via Computers4Charity.
· The Renewed Shop provides used computer equipment to the nonprofit sector.
· For very little money, ComputerAid provides refurbished technology to nonprofits.
· For UK charities, Green Root Tech provides free refurbished PCs, IT hardware, and software services.
Data security
The majority of these businesses that distribute or accept e-waste also provide a service to completely erase all data from computers and smartphone storage devices. But, your nonprofit organization should think about making sure that all data is deleted from its electronic devices before discarding them and that any reconditioned equipment it buys is "sanitized" to make sure they are free of harmful software and safe to use.
The above article is selected by CoolDeeds.org. The information and the assets belong to their respective owners (https://charitydigital.org.uk/topics/what-is-e-waste-and-how-can-charities-help-10857).
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