Earth day 2014 - Green Cities: reducing E-waste

April 19, 2014

SPECIAL EARTH DAY CELEBRATION

Picture credit to NOAA.org

Thank you VOLUNTEERS We are changing the world!

Special Earth Day Celebration With: ARC BROWARD 4.19.2014 Volunteers: 28 Total volunteers hours: 103 Project: Electronics Recycling E- CYCLING

Project Leaders: Jennifer Udan Maria M Hernandez

Organization: HandsOn Broward www.handsonbroward.org

Every year on April 22nd people around the world speak up in a single voice, sending a powerful message on the importance of creating a balance between the environment and humanity.

This year EARTH DAY 2014 campaign is recognizing the importance of GREEN CITIES, mobilizing a global movement to create awareness to help cities around the world to accelerate their transition to become more sustainable, cleaner and healthier by reducing their carbon footprint and pollution.

To be part of this global movement, I got together with volunteers of HandsOn Broward and ARC Broward in a special project to reduce the negative impact of E-WASTE in Broward County.

Maria M Hernandez LEED AP

THE PROBLEM: E-WASTE Each year, the United States Produces up to:

50 million tons of E-waste

Electronic waste, or “e-waste,� is a term used to describe any electronic device that is outdated, obsolete, broken, discarded, or at the end of its useful life. This includes cell phones, computers, laptops, PDAs, monitors, televisions, printers, scanners, and any other electrical device.

THE NEGATIVE IMPACT: Their incorrect discarding will cause major environmental problems in our communities. Many of the materials found in electronic devices are extremely hazardous: When these electronics end up in landfills, many of these chemicals seep into the soil during rainfall or are released into the atmosphere when burned. These chemicals contaminate our air and water supplies having dangerous impacts on the health of plants, animals and humans

NATIVE PLANTS

THE SOLUTION: E-CYCLING E-cycling is an initiative by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which refers to donations, reuse, shredding and general collection of used electronics and components rather than discarding them at the end of their life cycle.

THE POSITIVE IMPACT OF E-CYCLING: Electronic products are made from valuable resources and materials, including precious metals, plastics, and glass, all of which require energy to mine and manufacture. Donating or recycling consumer electronics conserves our natural resources, as well as reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are caused by manufacturing virgin materials.

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Recycling one million laptops saves the energy equivalent to the electricity used by more than 3,500 US homes in a year.

Recycling 100 million cell phones saved enough energy to power almost 200,000 U.S. homes for one year.

For every million cell phones we recycle, 35 thousand pounds of copper, 772 pounds of silver, 75 pounds of gold, and 33 pounds of palladium can be recovered.

By recycling electronics you are keeping them out of the landfills and allowing for the proper disposal of electronics that may contain hazardous or toxic substances.

THE PROJECT: Volunteers worked together to help disassemble CPUs that have been donated to ARC Broward's Electronics Recycling Service. The CPUs are broken down into different components using regular hand tools, and the components are then recycled and reused.

The 3R’s: reduce,reuse, recycle Great way to commemorate

Earth Day!

COMPONENTS OF THE TYPICAL PC:  Case: A heavy, metal and plastic enclosure.  Power Supply: A heavy metal box inside that provides power to each component  Motherboard: the main, large circuit board that all other components are connected to  Hard Drive: Smaller metal box that is the storage drive for the PC  Disk drives: drives for Floppy, CD, DVD and other media  PCI boards: boards connected to the motherboard to provide additional functionality such as graphics output.  RAM: slim circuit board sticks that provide memory for the machine.  Processor: square, many-pinned components that is the 'brain' of the PC  Connective wires: cables that connect all the above together.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

.THANK YOU VOLUNTEERS!!

GREAT LEARNING EXPERIENCE!

THE CASE:

PLASTIC AND METALS

POWER SUPPLY

FANS

THE PROCESSOR

The processor is the brain of the PC. It contains millions to billions of microscopic transistors and a few hundred gold plated pins. Processors are one of the most value dense portions of the PC. The processor is recognizable as a large rectangular or square chip that plugs directly into the motherboard.

Gold:

THE MOTHERBOARD

Is the 2nd best conductor of electricity, it is the most malleable metal, it can be made into micron-thin leaf and it is highly resistant to tarnish.

The Motherboard is rich in value and has several of the most valuable parts of the PC attached to it. The board itself has many gold plated connectors and pins.

MEMORY RAM, or Random Access Memory, is the short-term memory of a computer. RAM chips are found as a bank of long, rectangular 'mini circuit boards' that are populated with numerous memory modules

PCI boards: These boards typically add network connectivity such as through a modem or Ethernet connection. These boards are valuable due to precious metals found in their components as well as the connector pins and traces.

DRIVES \

Storage drives enable data to be saved, transferred and read from the computer.

Over the years, smaller and more sophisticated drivers have been developed.

5.25" and 3.5" floppy disk drives were some of the first, followed by ZIP, CD, DVD, and now Blu-ray drives.

They are primarily casing and motors with only a small amount of precious metal containing circuit boards.

RIBBON WIRES AND CABLES

These cables and wires are comprised of rubber coated copper stands. Copper is a fairly valuable metal (far, far less valuable than gold or platinum, but far more than steel and aluminum), so wires can be economically recycled for profit.

Thank you!

28 VOLUNTEERS 103 Total volunteers’ hours Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

200 computers RECYCLED! You are making the difference!

ABOUT ARC BROWAD ARC Broward Electronics Recycling Service is a nonprofit organization that provides training and employment opportunities to individuals with disabilities. The business was founded as a “missionbased enterprise� of ARC Broward, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing services to more than 1,200 children and adults with disabilities and other life challenges.

The revenue generated through recycling services goes directly towards supporting additional job training opportunities for adults with disabilities as they begin to transform their lives and build new futures.

As of June 2012, more than 10 million pounds of electronics have been collected for recycling through AR Broward Electronics Recycling Services.

10 Reasons to Volunteer: 1. Volunteering provides physical and mental rewards. It:  Reduces stress  Makes you healthier 2. Volunteering provides valuable community services so more money can be spent on local improvements.  The estimated value of a volunteer's time is $15.39 per hour.

3. Volunteers gain professional experience.

4. It brings people together.

5. It promotes personal growth and self-esteem.

6. Volunteering strengthens your community.

7. You learn a lot.

8. You get a chance to give back.

9. Volunteering encourages civic responsibility.

10. You make a difference:

Every person counts! www.handsonbroward.org

MY CONTRIBUTION:

As a project Leader, I have enjoy every single moment that I have shared with people from my community and surrounding areas, kids, teenagers and adults . Some of them volunteer from their heart and others for community hours, but we all have found a common motivation: The Environment.

For this reason, as an environment activist, I have created this magazine to explain the importance that is behind our volunteer project. I want to go beyond of just leading a group; I want to explain how our actions contribute to the protection of our natural resources and as consequence: our communities, our planet!

One day those teenagers that today are looking for community hours; they will be the future Homeowners that with their decisions will impact the world!

On this specific project celebrating Earth day 2014, we learned about the importance of e-cycling as a solution to the growing problem of E- Waste, Thank you to all the volunteers for their outstanding job! I can’t wait to see you next time as we continue to help the environment. Thank you to ARC Broward Electronics Recycling Services for this amazing learning experience.

Maria M Hernandez HandsOn Broward Environment Project Leader

SPECIAL EARTH DAY CELEBRATION 2014 LOVE THE PLANET… BE PART OF THE SOLUTION!

This magazine has been produced by: Maria M Hernandez LEED AP