Are you watching the XXI Winter Games in Vancouver? I am a huge Olympics junkie. Ever since volunteering during the Centennial Olympics in Atlanta back in 1996, I’ve loved the Games (both winter and summer varieties) and pretty much devote two weeks of my life biannually to watching them. After consuming four hours of coverage nightly for the last week, the only things more heavily glazed than the short track speed skating rink are my eyeballs.

I was fascinated to discover that all of the medals being awarded in Vancouver include gold, silver and bronze (actually copper, since little or no bronze is used in electronics) reclaimed from computer motherboards. It’s the first time Olympic and Paralympic medals have contained e-waste. The short film below, produced by Dell Computer’s blog Motherboard, shows how the medals were created and the thought process behind them.

This week, recycling consultant Earth911.com released its 2009 Annual Recycling Report, which shows, perhaps unsurprisingly, that electronics generated the most recycling queries on the site.

“Electronics have always been popular searches on Earth911.com, but with the increased attention these devices have received, this past year was our highest yet,” said Corey Lambrecht, president of Earth911, in a press release. “Also, overall recycling searches increased 12 percent over 2008, as consumers want to know more about how to dispose of these items.”

The top 10 products consumers looked to recycle in 2009 using Earth911’s database were:

1. Computers

2. Batteries

3. Televisions

4. Paint

5. Aluminum cans

6. Used motor oil

7. CFLs

8. Glass

9. Fluorescent lamps

10. Christmas Trees

A .PDF of the full report can be obtained at here.

Atlanta’s Fernbank Museum has found a great way to encourage e-waste recycling. According to TreeHugger, from Jan. 15-24, the museum is offering free tickets for the IMAX documentary “Wild Ocean” to people who turn in an old cell phone for recycling. Given the film’s eco-friendly message, the offer is probably preaching to the choir, but it’s a good idea nonetheless.

What are some similar, simple ways we can get people to recycle key items they might otherwise toss in the trash?

It seems as though some folks upgrade their cell phone every six months. For them, and for people who want to do the right thing with their genuinely worn out phone but don’t have a lot of time, CNET reports there is now the EcoATM.

Just deposit your device in the free-standing machine and it will use cameras and other metrics to examine its condition. It then offers the customer a gift card or in-store credit toward a new phone. If the phone is broken or just hopelessly obsolete, it will offer customers the option of recycling it responsibly. They may even be rewarded for their eco-responsibility with a free cell phone case and the promise that EcoATM will plant a tree in that person’s name.

Waste industry folks will recognize something in these impressive photos by Chris Jordan that may not be immediately apparent to the layman (as evidenced by the subsequent comments): While, the images of so much waste are disturbing, the fact that these materials have clearly been separated means they are destined to be recycled, not landfilled. Still, it’s an effective commentary on consumption and disposal. Plus the photos themselves are beautifully shot.

I think the more interesting question here is why we so rarely are allowed to see these kinds of pictures. As Jordan admits, many of his photographs were taken clandestinely, since the processing facilities would not give him permission to shoot the material. Why? Certainly there are safety and legal issues to be considered, but those can be easily accommodated (they do it for Mike Rowe, after all). What is the inherent reticence in allowing Americans see the end product of our current consumption habits?

Earlier this week, U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., introduced legislation to increase the recycling of electronics and to reduce the use of hazardous materials in the products. The Electronic Device Recycling Research and Development Act comes at a time when electronics manufacturers, state and local governments, waste handlers, environmentalists, and consumers are all crying out for consistency in the handling of e-waste. Trying to juggle 50 different sets of regulations for e-waste only ends up hurting everyone and makes compliance costly and difficult. It also prevents the establishment of large-scale domestic markets to process and use this material.

What components should be included in this legislation for it to be successful and what will help it meet the needs of the waste and recycling industry?

Attention waste and recycling firms! We are now officially accepting applications for the 16th annual Waste Age 100, our ranking of the top 100 refuse firms in the private sector. Inclusion in this listing is FREE and is a great way to get your company noticed. You can find last year’s rankings here.

To submit your info, please fill out our online form. The final ranking will be published in the August issue of Waste Age.

A great article in today’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette uses a charity e-waste collection event as a jumping off point to examine the fiction of “free” electronics recycling. The article asserts that if electronics are being collected for free (and especially if the company collecting the electronics asserts that it is making enough to give some of the proceeds to charity), that material is likely being shipped to third-world countries.

“People have to understand that if they want their electronics disposed in the right way, they have to pay for it,” said [Alan Boring, owner and operator of A. Greenspan Computer Recycling Inc.], 60, who started his recycling business in 2003.

The right way of doing business, he said, must include a certain fee that is assessed to the consumer. That fee is essential because the collector has to pay a smelter in the United States, Canada, Japan or some countries in Europe to properly shred the electronics.

It’s worth noting (as the article does) that this activity, while unethical, is not technically illegal. It’s also notable that the United States is the only industrialized nation that has yet to sign the Basel treaty, under which developed countries agree to monitor and end the shipment and reckless disposal of hazardous materials contained in electronics.

If your firm collects e-waste, do you know where that material ultimately winds up? Are you sure?

One of the most fraught issues in the disposal of e-waste is proper handling of the sensitive material contained on old hard drives. It’s understandable, since the deliberate or inadvertent release of steamy chat logs, passwords or bank records contained therein could be deeply embarrassing or financially devastating.

Unfortunately, hard drives are not easily erased. A cottage industry has emerged during the past two decades specializing in recovering lost data. Just formatting a disc can still leave most or all of the information recoverable.

NPR tackles this conundrum as part of its All Tech Considered series. The piece points out the great lengths to which some folks will go to ensure their data goes to the grave:

Jon Armstrong knows how to reformat the old Macintosh computers, but he isn’t as familiar with PCs. He is going to try removing the hard drives before recycling, but if he can’t he might try more extreme measures.

“I will drill into the drive and just wreak havoc with my drill bit,” he says. “Just get a big old drill bit and brrrrrrr, go in and destroy the drive inside the computer.”

Professional e-waste recycling outfits have devised more elegant solutions to the problem, but there is still the matter of convincing clients that drives will be properly handled.

If your firm handles e-waste, how do you reassure your customers that their hard drives will be handled appropriately?

Here’s a interesting but frustrating story from KUOW in Washington State about a possible drawback to the state’s aggressive new e-waste law. Essentially, computers that might otherwise be easily retrofitted and redistributed to people and organizations in need are instead being broken down for salvage and recycling due to a provision of the law that insists that only “fully functional” computers are eligible for reuse.

The story quotes Charles Brennick, who runs Interconnect, a Seattle-based processor of donated computers:

“So if it’s like a year–old computer or whatever and the donor’s taken out their hard drive, that computer then is no longer functional. Then we’d have to send to state program. Easy fix is just putting in another hard drive. It’s a two–minute job. Put in another hard drive and the computer’s good again.”

Under the new law, however, that computer cannot be refurbished. It must be torn down for parts and recycled.

This goes to show that what is e-waste for some could be a lifeline for others. Sometimes the best way to “recycle” a computer is simply to give it to someone who needs it more than you.