Thank You Fedora 5541 Lbs. of E-Waste not entering into landfills this year, from CrossBytes.org

The year 2009 has been a great year for CrossBytes.org

We have kept 5541 Lbs. (2.77 Tons) of E-Waste from entering into landfills this year.

….

Computers may seem like sleek, high-tech marvels. But what’s inside them?

“Lead, cadmium, mercury, chromium, polyvinyl chlorides. All of these materials have known

toxicological effects that range from brain damage to kidney disease to mutations, cancers,”

Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist and authority on waste management at the

Natural Resources Defense Council, explained.

“The problem with e-waste is that it is the fastest-growing component of the municipal waste stream worldwide,” he said.

Asked what he meant by “fastest-growing,” Hershkowitz said. “Well, we throw out about 130,000 computers every day in the United States.”

….

excerpt from

Aug. 30, 2009

Following The Trail Of Toxic E-Waste

60 Minutes Follows America’s Toxic Electronic Waste As It Is Illegally Shipped To Become China’s Dirty Secret

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/08/19/60minutes/main4579229.shtml

although the story is fairly long it is worth reading…

this is the reason CrossBytes.org does not recycle we reuse refurbish and through our School Nomination Program we put the computer systems back into use.

This has only been made possible through all of the donations that have been made to CrossBytes.org and through the use of Fedora as the OS

of these older systems that would have otherwise ended up in local landfills or worse overseas in place like Guiyu in southern China.

We at CrossBytes.org do follow the criteria set forth by the Basel Action Network (BAN) in there ‘E-Stewards Standards’ as best as we can.

We make sure that any materials that do need to be recycled go to a company that has signed the Electronic Recycler’s Pledge of True Stewardship.

(IMS Electronics Recycling, Inc.)

So thank you everyone in the Fedora Community for doing such a great job this year.