E-Waste is Not Time Wasted Online

Several electronic waste collections are being held in LA area, next one is Jan. 24

Electronic waste is not the drivel you read now and then by some lame LA blogger who saw Paris Hilton at Best Buy.

Electronic waste, or E-waste as it's called by those in know, is the computer you purchased at Best Buy so you could waste time reading about people who are famous for being famous (which reminds me, I need to check up on Angelyne).

This prized piece of plastic and wires you're staring at is toxic. It's lead and mercury and a bunch of other serious poisons that must go somewhere, though only after you've properly aged it for about a decade in your garage.

Those old cell phones count as E-waste too. So do televisions.

Face it. You will never, ever, ever find the time to convert that ancient Mac computer into a Macquarium.

But don't throw that stuff away. The sheer volume of discarded cell phones in Los Angeles alone would surely top off our landfills and likely pile high enough to blot out the sun.

And before you try taking it to a charity storefront like Goodwill, you might want to call ahead. Some have stopped taking items like computer monitors and non-digital televisions.

The one sure-fire solution is to take them to an upcoming E-Waste collection event in Southern California, like the one held this past weekend in Reseda. (NOTE to the office of LA City Councilman Dennis Zine: Press releases published the day of an event on the city's Web site are nowhere near as effective as those published several days before the event.)

If you missed that one, not to worry. The Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County maintains a running list of collections at its Web site. Upcoming events include one at Clark Stadium in Hermosa Beach on Jan. 24, and another at Rio Hondo College Fire Training Academy in Santa Fe Springs on Jan. 31.

-- TJ Sullivan

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