Even the U.S. government thinks you should recycle your old devices

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We should probably start recycling more if we want Earth to stay this beautiful...
We should probably start recycling more if we want Earth to stay this beautiful...
Photo: NASA

Honestly, you know things are grave when the U.S. government thinks we’re behind on something. According to the Government Accountability Office, the United States has dismally low recycling rates for used TVs, computers and other devices.

There’s no national infrastructure for a strong recycling program, so states are left to take on the problem themselves, leading to a patchwork of regulations and inconsistencies on how to deal with it. Luckily, Cult of Mac can help Mother Earth and you at the same time — check out our Apple devices buyback program to either sell or straight-up recycle your used or broken gear.

It’s important that the United States figure out better ways to recycle old electronics. Not only can recycling recover precious metals, but refurbishing old tech allow others to reuse devices we no longer need.

Unfortunately, U.S. consumers and businesses still throw away tens of millions of old tech devices each year. These devices can leak lead and mercury into landfills, which is bad for the environment.

It’s a global problem, too. These devices don’t always end up here in our landfills: They are often exported to countries with looser recycling regulations.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that we only end up reusing or recycling 15 perfect to 20 perfect of our used devices, while the rest gets sent to landfills in the states. And while newer landfills are equipped to stop toxic chemicals from leaking, we still lose resources like copper, gold and aluminum which could be recycled rather than mining new raw materials.

So, say you realize all this and want to recycle your device? Walk into your local tech store, and they will likely charge a fee just to recycle your old gear, which only encourages to bring it back home and toss it in a junk drawer or the trash.

When the GAO report, titled ““>Considerations for Promoting Environmentally Sound Reuse and Recycling” (.pdf), was published in 2010, only 23 states had enacted any kind of electronic recycling legislation, which isn’t bad, but it’s still not enough. While there is strong agreement that recycling old devices offers significant sustainability benefits over throwing them in landfills or exporting them to less-developed countries, there’s still a lot of debate on how this should be done, which has slowed down the process of setting up a proper national system for e-cycling.

The Cult of Mac buyback program is here to help

Here at Cult of Mac, we want to help with these problems. We offer a buyback program for your old tech devices. Whether it’s an old MacBook or an iPhone 4, you can sell us your old devices and we’ll send you cash back for them.

Check out how much money your old devices are worth today! It only takes a minute to get a quote. And if you don’t have anything worth selling, but still have old devices laying around that you don’t want to toss, we’ll recycle them for free.

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