Teens go green with gizmos

Joey Leyva-Ximenez, a junior at Natomas Charter School, owns a lot of electronic gadgets – cell phone, laptop, stereo, television and piano keyboard.

Unlike his gadget-crazed peers, Leyva-Ximenez is trying to buy fewer of them and hang on longer to the ones he has. He gets cell phones handed down from his parents, and he passes gadgets along to his brother.

Despite his efforts, Leyva-Ximenez said, the stuff just keeps piling up. At an electronic-waste collection fundraiser Saturday at his school, the teenager got rid of two monitors, four computer hard drives, two cell phones, a scanner and a printer collected from family members.

Students in Natomas Charter School's new environmental program organized the e-waste drive to raise awareness of environmental issues on campus.

Leyva-Ximenez said students already know about global warming and endangered species, but they may be surprised to learn that environmentalism involves the stuff they can't live without.

"I never knew the effects of not recycling before," he said.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, about a fifth of the 2 million tons of e-waste dumped by Americans in 2005 was recycled. The rest clogs landfills and leaches a toxic brew of heavy metals and other chemicals into the environment.

"Students would love to do something, but they don't know what," said Natomas Charter School teacher Lucy Coleman.

Action is critical for motivating teenagers, Coleman said. In this case, students were able to act on a real-world problem.

The students found an e-waste collector that also recycles the goods – California Electronic Asset Recovery Inc. based in Sacramento County – listed on the California Integrated Waste Management Board's Web site.

Coleman said students questioned the recycler to find out how it dismantles and recycles the goods it collects.

"It's hard to find a place where you can take (electronics) that you know will be responsible," said Barbara Kyle of the Electronics TakeBack Coalition, based in San Francisco.

The coalition's Web site lists e-waste recyclers that have adopted "responsible" practices.

There are no certifications that ensure recyclers are not exporting e-waste to developing countries where workers take it apart without appropriate health, safety and environmental regulations.

The Natomas Charter students were told that the electronics are taken apart and separated into components such as metal, plastic and glass, and further recycled.

California Electronic Asset Recovery spokeswoman Kristin Di Lallo Sherrill said the company sends components with toxic materials such as lead and mercury to hazardous material recyclers.

The company does most of the dismantling by hand in-house, Sherrill said, but it sends cathode ray tubes to a factory in Malaysia, where the parts are recycled and crafted into new tubes.

Under state law, consumers pay a fee on new or refurbished electronics, which goes to pay recyclers. Sherrill said recyclers earn 48 cents per pound of e-waste. Under the system, recyclers pay e-waste collectors. Natomas Charter students earned 10 cents per pound of e-waste.

Community e-waste fundraisers, held by churches, schools and nonprofits, are becoming common.

By 10 a.m. Saturday, 40 cars had come through Natomas Charter with loads of televisions, computers, printers and cell phones.

Parent Alice Levine said Saturday she's been itching to get rid of electronic stuff that has collected in her midtown basement. She dumped two cell phones, computer keyboards, stereo speakers and a scanner.

According to the EPA, U.S. households are stockpiling about 180 million units of e-waste in garages and basements.

Worried about the coming tide of high-tech trash, some local and state governments are taking action. So far, 10 states and New York City have passed laws creating e-waste recycling programs. All except California's are "producer-responsibility" laws that require manufacturers to pay for recycling.

More than a dozen other states are considering similar producer-responsibility laws this year.

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• Call The Bee's Ngoc Nguyen at (916) 321-1041.