All, At Green Drinks, Environment, Events, Justice, Nature, New solutions, Sustainable communities, Youth

April green & sustainable actions, training, events

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Calendar treeCheck back for updates throughout the month.

Green Drinks 3 meets in Newark, Paterson-Clifton and Hackensack

Elly faceGreen Drinks are events – not a type of drink. They’re informal gatherings where people get together and chat about green and sustainable issues in our communities. Everyone is welcome and there is no admission fee. Pay for the food and drinks you order at the restaurants where we meet.
Green Drinks Newark 1st Mondays
(01 April 2013 @ 7-9pm)
Rio Rodizio
1034 McCarter Highway, Newark, NJ
Green Drinks Hackensack 2nd Mondays
(08 April 2013 @ 7-9pm)
Choripan Restaurant
76 Main Street (corner of Bergen St. aka Bridge St.), Hackensack, NJ
Green Drinks Paterson-Clifton
3rd Tuesday Lunch (16 April 2013 12-1:30pm)
Sultan Restaurant
429 Crooks Avenue, Clifton, NJ

Bergen CC NAACP screens Half the Sky

Half the SkyTuesday 29 April @ 11:45am
Bergen Community College
400 Paramus Road, Paramus NJ
Room A-104 in the Student Center
Read about it

27th Annual Stand Up for New Jersey Conference: Fighting for Clean Water, Air & Land

Stand Up for New Jersey! Learn about the most pressing environmental issues facing New Jersey in our exciting workshop sessions. The day also includes coffee and continental breakfast, environmental awards, lunch and a wine & cheese reception.
Saturday 06 April 2013 @ 8:30am-5pm
Georgian Court University
900 Lakewood Avenue, Lakewood Township, NJ
Tickets only $25 if you register now!

Featured Speaker: State Senator Barbara Buono

Workshop Sessions

  • Occupy Main Street, Occupy State Street with Tracy Carluccio of Delaware Riverkeeper Network and Clean Water Action’s national board chair David Tykulsker.
  • Climate Change Hits Home with Dr. Laumbach, MD of EOHSI and Dr. Kennish, PhD of the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University.
  • We All Live Downstream with Brick and Jackson Township Municipal Utilities Authority.
  • NJ’s Green Energy Future with Stephanie McClellan of the Atlantic Wind Connection.
  • Sustainable Water & Green Infrastructure with Meishka Mitchell from the Camden SMART Initiative and Cooper Robertson’s Earl Jackson, IV and William Kenworthey.
  • Zero Waste with zero waste consultant Priscilla Hayes and Laura Petit of New Paltz, NY.
  • “Just Say No” Environmental Justice workshop with Henry Rose of the NJ Environmental Justice Alliance and Dylan Hawkins, Senator Weinberg’s legislative director.
  • Sustainability Tour of Georgian Court University (GCU) with GCU’s Director of Sustainability Dr. Louise Wootton and the Bus for Progress.

Statewide immigration reform rally at Jersey City State Park

Brothers and sisters Come with us, join us, and send this message to the President and the Congress “that we are united workers fighting for a Humane Immigration Reform that keeps family together! There will be a march on Liberty State Park in Jersey City to make our collective voices heard, this means that all New Jersey will be participating. Working People of NJ, from East and West, around North and South, all will be marching to demand that President Obama and Congress act quickly and pass a fair immigration reform package this year. We must make a single voice and stay strong to win this fight.

Saturday 06 April 2013 @ 12pm
Jersey City State Park
Directions by public transportation:
PATH subway to Pavonia/Newport or Hoboken.
Then take the Light Rail to Liberty State Park.

For more information
Elizabeth NJ: Rev. Ramon Collazo 908 209 0335 | Maritsa Loaiza 848 203 4310
Morristown area: Morris County Hispanic-American Chamber of Commerce 973 818 2666
SEIU NY & NJ

Strategy meeting for actions to stop Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Join Food and Water Watch Bergen/Passaic Group and our allies for the next meeting to stop the Tennessee Gas Pipeline! We’ll be discussing important campaign updates, planning next steps and continuing to build our local movement for a livable future. New members are always welcome!
Sunday 07 April 3:30-5pm
St. Mary’s Church, 25 Pompton Ave, Pompton Lakes NJ (Ground Floor of the School Building)
Who: You, your family, friends and neighbors!

For more info contact Matt Smith, North Jersey Organizer of Food & Water Watch 201.321.1967

Film: 
The Highlands Rediscovered

Presented by the New Jersey Highlands Coalition and the League of Women Voters of Ridgewood
Thursday 11 April 2013 @ 7-8:30pm
Lester Stable, Maple Avenue, Ridgewood
Free and open to the public!

This informative 30-minute documentary, shot beautifully in high-definition, explains the history of the Highlands region and why it became the source of clean drinking water for more than half of New Jersey’s population. The film shows how the ecological functions of the Highlands forests cleanse rain as it percolates into underground aquifers and ultimately, out into surface reservoirs. It also speaks about the challenges the Highlands region faces to retain forests so essential to the state’s health under great pressure to develop the land.
 
Following the film, Erica Van Auken and Elliott Ruga of the NJ Highlands Coalition will host an audience discussion and answer questions. For more information contact: Erica Van Auken 973-588-7190 or erica@njhighlandscoalition.org

State controlled school district advocates hold public meeting

The attack on public education is serious locally,statewide and nationally. Until we all come together and work collectively to stop school closings and gain local control and elect individuals who’s number one agenda is to strengthen and empower the community. Come and join Newark, Jersey City, Paterson and Camden along with other cities. Together we can and will make a change. Light refreshments served.
Saturday 13 April 13 2013 @ 10am-1pm
Africana Institute or Essex County College
303 University Avenue, Newark, New Jersey 07102

RSVP to Sharon Smith Ssmith@Pulsenj.org or Johnnie Lattner Jlattner@Pulsenj.org

Kokokidz Latino Youth Peer Empowerment Group Meetings

Kokokidz meets once or twice a month in north Jersey. If you’re a Latino student junior high school through college age, Kokokidz will help empower you to make positive change happen in your school and community. Young Latinos support each other in the areas of career, education, applying for scholarships, civic engagement, sustainability practices and cultural preservation. We’re also seeking mentors who can interact with Kokokidz members and provide career and education advice.
Kokokidz General Meeting
Sunday 14 April 2013 @ 6-8pm
Villa de Colombia
12 Mercer Street, Hackensack, NJ
The group will choose an Earth Day activity and look at scholarships, summer internships.
Kokokidz Meets with Mentors and Gets A Finance Lesson
Sunday 28 April 2013 @ 6-8pm
Location TBA
Dennis Bedoya of 1st Jersey Federal Credit Union will give a half-hour presentation about money management and why credit unions can do more for our communities than traditional banks. Mentors will get to know the Kokokidz members.

Kokokidz Contacts
Ivan Wei 201-688-0036 @ivanwei
Luis Ariel Lopez Wei @lalwei

Mentors Needed!
If you’re available as an adult mentor please contact our advisor Kimi Wei via Facebook or Twitter to chat about volunteer opportunities.

Community Service We are looking at different types of community service opportunities. If you have a cause or event you’d like Kokokidz to engage with please share details.

Kokokidz is helping with the movement to Close New Jersey schools on Martin Luther King Jr. Day https://www.facebook.com/pages/Close-NJ-Schools-on-MLK-Jr-Day/276810379041778

Film: Food, Inc. in Paterson

Watch Food, Inc. and learn if Big Ag is putting profits over people
Wednesday 17 April 2013 @ 5pm
Paterson Free Public Library
250 Broadway, Paterson NJ

All, Fun, Nature

Wild gorillas meet man in Uganda

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What if you were a baby gorilla in Uganda, wandering peaceably around the jungle with your Silverback Daddy and the rest of your gorilla family … and happened upon a bunch of concrete steps making a pathway going up and down through the jungle, and discovered on those steps small troops of humans walking around. And one of those humans happened to be sitting down at just about your eye height and he had the oddest, silver hair. What would your baby gorilla mind tell you to do? Obviously, you must check this fellow out thoroughly. You must groom his hair a bit, lick him, and then climb up a small tree to see him better from a top view.

Gigantic Daddy at one point, grabs junior to move him on, but the little one isn’t ready to leave yet, and his fascination has attracted several of his brothers and sisters, who mill about next to the man together with junior. So Daddy Silverback walks a few feet behind the man and plunks himself down to sit and watch casually while his children, and then two female gorillas as well, examine this man thoroughly by touching his upper body, head and hair. Eventually, the family has seen enough and amble away. When the smaller gorillas move on, so does gigantic Daddy. They leave one very amazed man still sitting, keeping his head well down while the gorillas are in motion so as not to appear threatening or confrontative to them in any way. Clearly, the same benign Daddy who looks on with only moderate interest while his children swarm around the silver haired man, could very easily tear that man into several pieces if he was of a mind to do it.

This is a beautiful little vignette. Watch it if you have five and a half minutes to spend on a bit of pure enjoyment, observing the intersection of nature with the world of man.

The silver haired subject of the gorilla examination was visiting the Bwindi National Park wildlife preserve as an eco-tourist. Eco-tourism provides substantial revenue to the people of Uganda.

All, Education, Environment, Events, Health, Help, New solutions, Protection, Sustainable communities, Urban, Water

Sustainable & green training/events – March

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Check back for updates.
Calendar treeNewark-Montclair Urban Teacher Residency – Apply through 3/15
The Newark-Montclair Urban Teacher Residency is an innovative Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program offered at Montclair State University in partnership with the Newark Public Schools. Participants will receive free tuition and a $26,000 stipend. A 3-year teaching commitment is required.

Residents enroll in full-time graduate coursework each semester (summer sessions included) and participate in summer internships with community based organizations in the city of Newark. Applications are currently being accepted for Secondary level (K-12) subject matter certification in mathematics or a field of science. Final Application Deadline extended till Friday, March 15, 2013.

More at http://greenwei.com/blog/free-tuition-stipend-for-msu-masters-urban-teacher-residency/

Is Our Water Safe To Drink?
Public Hearing in East Orange sponsored by Councilwoman Alicia Holman
Wednesday, March 6, 2013 6:30 – 8:30pm
CITY HALL, 44 CITY HALL PLAZA, E. ORANGE
https://www.facebook.com/events/557057327645425/

Newark Kids Count 2013 Forum
Wednesday, March 13, 2013 9:30am – 2:30pm
The Paul Robeson Campus Center
350 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Newark
https://www.facebook.com/events/386113894821185/#

Using an interactive format, we will explore issues that threaten Newark children and identify concrete next steps that we, as a community, can take. We will focus on two broad areas – child and maternal health and early literacy. Special guests include Newark’s Branch Brook Elementary Principal Joseph Cullen, whose students achieve well above city and state averages on reading tests. The event is free, but you must register to attend. A complimentary breakfast and lunch will be provided.

Register at http://wfc2.wiredforchange.com/o/8716/p/salsa/event/common/public/?event_KEY=71612. For more information contact Reggie Dorsey at rdorsey@acnj.org

NJ Land Conservation Rally
One-day educational conference about preserving
New Jersey’s open space and farmland
Saturday, March 9, 2013 9am – 5pm
NJ Institute of Technology
Newark, New Jersey

Online registration will close at 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 5. Registration fee will remain at $80 per person for a full day of educational & inspiring workshops, breakfast, lunch and social reception. Register online today! Registration will also be accepted at the door.

If you live or work in Newark, Rally scholarships are available, thanks to Victoria Foundation. To become eligible: download, fill out and return registration form.

1st Annual Patricia Harris Parent Summit
Saturday, March 9, 2013 9am – 5pm
John F. Kennedy High School
Paterson NJ

Citywide Parent Summit to continue Pat’s legacy of effective parental involvement and engagement in school improvement.
https://www.facebook.com/events/481929115201697/

Kokokidz Latino Youth Peer Empowerment Group Meeting
Sunday, March 10, 2013 5-6:30pm
Villa de Colombia
12 Mercer Street
Hackensack, NJ
https://www.facebook.com/events/427537817332045/

Young Latinos support each other in the areas of career, education, applying for scholarships, civic engagement, sustainability practices and cultural preservation in their communities. Kokokidz meets once or twice a month in Hackensack or another North Jersey town. If you’re a Latino student junior high school through college age, Kokokidz will help you be more effective in your life and learn to make positive change happen in your school and community.

Contacts:
Ivan Wei 201-688-0036 @ivanwei
Luis Ariel Lopez Wei @lalwei

If you’re available as an adult mentor please contact our advisor Kimi Wei on Facebook or Twitter to discuss volunteer opportunities.

Community Service: We are looking at different types of community service opportunities. If you have a cause or event you’d like us to engage with please share details.

Kokokidz is currently helping with the movement to Close New Jersey schools on Martin Luther King Jr. Day https://www.facebook.com/pages/Close-NJ-Schools-on-MLK-Jr-Day/276810379041778

Climate Action Meeting at Cook College
Sunday, March 10 7pm
Cook Campus Center (Rutgers)
59 Biel Road, Room 202, A & B
New Brunswick, NJ

The meeting will begin with a video chat featuring Bill McKibben of 350.org, followed by a discussion of what actions to do next on the local, state and national levels. Come with ideas and bring friends. The momentum depends on each one of us to act now! For a short capsule of the February 17 Forward on Climate rally event go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=anXE46utpo8

Sponsored by Melanie McDermott, Initiative on Climate and Society, Rutgers University and Tina Weishaus, Central Jersey Coalition Against Endless War

All, At Green Drinks, Events, Fun, Nature, New solutions, Protection, Sustainable communities

Green Drinks 3 (eco chats) March 2013 Schedule

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Calendar treeGreen Drinks 3 logo

Green Drinks are about the environment, sustainability, community empowerment, saving the net & happiness
At Green Drinks we are working on building healthy food systems and clean, safe communities. We’re chatting about . . . combatting climate change, composting, biking, kids walking to school, protecting public education, solar energy, alternate fuel cars and better public transit. Each of these is a sustainability topic.

Expert social and environmental justice advocates come out to spend the evening with the community discussing these issues. The point of Green Drinks is to spark conversation about integrating sustainability activities and environmentally friendly practices into our lives and neighborhoods!

WHO’S WELCOME?
You are! We have interesting and lively discussions, and meet at restaurants that serve good, inexpensive food. If you have information to contribute, or just want to learn, you’ll be welcome at Green Drinks. Feel free to bring a friend.

HAPPINESS & SAVING THE INTERNET
Recognizing your blessings is a game changer, so we discuss happiness. Protecting the free and open internet is ESSENTIAL to being happy and empowering communities, so we discuss this too.

CHEERS FROM YOUR HOSTS
Kimi Wei, Ivan Gomez Wei, Angenett Washington & Sally Gellert

MARCH GREEN DRINKS 3 SCHEDULE
Newark 1st Mondays (04 March) 7-9PM
Hackensack 2nd Mondays (11 March) 7-9PM
Paterson-Clifton 3rd Tuesdays (19 March) 12NOON
Visit http://greendrinks3.org/ for other location addresses

Check our list of upcoming events, actions & training

All, Energy, Events, Justice, New solutions, Protection

Half the Sky New York screening this Fri 01 Feb

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Half the Sky MovementPlease join us for a screening of Half the Sky and to raise awareness and funds for New Light, an organization in Kolkata, India helping to empower women through education and life-skill training.

A discussion and reception will immediately follow the screening.

Friday 01 Feb 2013 7:30-10:30pm
At Anthology Film Archives
32 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003

About Half the Sky:

The central moral challenge of our time is reaching a tipping point. Just as slavery was the defining struggle of the 19th century and totalitarianism of the 20th, the fight to end the oppression of women and girls worldwide defines our current century.

Hidden in the overlapping problems of sex trafficking and forced prostitution, gender-based violence, and maternal mortality is the single most vital opportunity of our time and women are seizing it. From Somaliland to Cambodia to Afghanistan, women’s oppression is being confronted head on and real, meaningful solutions are being fashioned. Change is happening, and its happening now.

Journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn took on this urgent moral challenge in 2009 with their acclaimed best-selling book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide (already in its 25th printing in hardback). They encouraged readers all over the world to do the same.

Now, a landmark movement inspired by Kristof and WuDunns work and also entitled Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide is working to amplify the books impact. Ignited by a high-profile national television event and fueled by innovative multi-platform initiatives, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide is galvanizing even more people to join the burgeoning movement for change.

Learn more about Half the Sky Movement at halftheskymovement.org
Learn more about New Light at newlightindia.org/#

All, Education, Justice, New solutions, Sustainable communities

Free tuition + stipend for MSU Master’s / Urban Teacher Residency

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Montclair College Grad SchoolThe Newark-Montclair Urban Teacher Residency is an innovative Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program offered at Montclair State University in partnership with the Newark Public Schools. Participants will receive free tuition and a $26,000 stipend. A 3-year teaching commitment is required.

SECONDARY MATH AND SCIENCE APPLICATIONS are now being accepted. Final Application Deadline extended till Friday, March 15, 2013.

Residents enroll in full-time graduate coursework each semester (summer sessions included) and participate in summer internships with community based organizations in the city of Newark. Applications are currently being accepted for Secondary level (K-12) subject matter certification in mathematics or a field of science.

A series of events is being held to help clarify steps in the application and admission process:

Newark-Montclair Urban Teacher Residency Events:
January 31 – Information Session
February 10 – Graduate School Open House

Eligibility
Candidates must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0;
A conferred Bachelor’s degree prior to beginning the program;
A genuine interest and commitment to urban education; and
Proof of United States citizenship or permanent residency

Candidates unable to attend may contact the program staff with application questions at nmutrp@mail.montclair.edu

Please note: The events below are not mandatory for applicants.

January Event Details – Information Session
Date: Thursday, January 31, 2013
Time: 10:00am-11:30am
Drop-in hours: 11:30-12:30pm
Location: University Hall, Ferraro Lounge

Information Session Highlights:

Overview of N-MUTR Program
Application and admission process
Tips on how to be a successful applicant
Praxis II exam (upcoming dates and deadlines)
Tips for completing the application by the deadline
Common mistakes in the application process
Review of Frequently Asked Questions

Graduate School Open House
Date: Sunday, February 10, 2013
Time: 12:00pm-1:00pm: Breakout Session
1:00pm-2:00pm: Graduate Program Fair
Location: University Hall, First Floor

Additional Information for the Open House can be found on the Graduate School Website

Program Overview
Calling Math and Science majors with a commitment to teaching and a strong interest in urban education to apply!

The N-MUTR offers full Montclair State University tuition plus a living stipend of up to $26,000 for this twelve month program.

*Additional funds are available to those who qualify through the Federal TEACH grant program.
*The N-MUTR requires a commitment of 3 years teaching in the Newark Public Schools after completing the program. Graduates participate in an induction program to support their development as teachers in their first 3 years as teachers.

Registration
To RSVP for either session, please send an email to nmutrp@mail.montclair.edu Walk-ins are welcome.

To find out more about how to apply to the N-MUTR program, please visit http://nmutrp.ning.com/

All visitors are directed to park in the Red Hawk Parking Deck for a nominal fee.

Abuse of public trust, All, Energy, Environment, Health, Justice, Protection

West VA gas explosion begs the question: are pipelines safe?

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Bloomberg reports that the fire that burned up a four lane interstate highway and melted houses near Sissonville, West Virginia yesterday on December 11, was caused by, “Natural gas escaping from a pipeline owned by NiSource Inc. (NI) … near the Lanham Compressor Station on the Columbia Gas Transmission system, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) north of Charleston.” The company owns and manages fracking operations in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

CBS News reports, “Flames shot some 100 feet in the air and hopped the main north-south arterial Interstate 77, as emergency responders scrambled to cap the ruptured gas line … and bring the blaze under control.” See reports and updates on WSAZ.

The Charleston Gazette offers insights into the questions about gas pipeline safety. Two obvious issues are lack of government oversight for certain types of pipes, and a decline in safety as pipes age, with one source reporting that over half of the pipes in the US are over 50 years old:

…many gaps remain in the oversight of the nearly 2.5 million miles of pipelines that crisscross the United States … concerns about pipeline safety have grown, amid a boom in natural gas drilling in several states and in the wake of a string of serious accidents … the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) warned that many so-called “gathering” pipelines, which transport gas to processing facilities, escape federal scrutiny altogether.

Questions about pipeline safety recently received national media scrutiny from the public interest journalism organization ProPublica, from The New York Times and from the Philadelphia Inquirer … GAO report … said the federal pipeline safety office does not regulate most gathering pipelines in the United States, based on their location in remote areas … “out of the more than 200,000 estimated miles of natural gas gathering pipelines, PHMSA regulates roughly 20,000 miles,” the GAO said. “Similarly, of the 30,000 to 40,000 estimated miles of hazardous liquid gathering pipelines, PHMSA regulates about 4,000 miles.”

Two big extraction initiatives currently being pushed by the US fuel industry are fracking, which removes natural gas trapped inside of shale rock formations using a cocktail of highly toxic liquid which becomes waste which is later injected into the ground and has contaminated water supplies and caused earthquakes in several communities; and the “Tar Sands”/XL Pipeline project which calls for extracting oil by burning arid land and selling the oil to foreign countries after piping it from Canada to California. Both call for piping explosive and environmentally threatening fuels across the country. Advocates for public health, community safety, and environment sustainability ask why the U.S. government does not require that clean energy sources take the place of these dangerous and dirty fuel operations that destroy land and health.

Emerging evidence links injection of fracking waste to a dramatic increase in earthquake frequency. A new U.S. Geological Survey reports that in the 10 year period between 2001-2011, 95 quakes occurred in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado although in the prior 36 year period only 3 quakes took place. The study cites increases in oil and gas industry activity and the Denver Post quotes Justin Rubenstein, co-author of the report:

“This is a societal risk you need to be considering … At the moment, we’re the only people who have done this work, and our evidence is pretty conclusive.

The Times-Call reports that at a Boulder County hearing on fracking, school children members of Earth Guardians said,

“We are standing up for our future … Protect us from the dangers of fracking.”

“We deserve a fighting chance,” said Zapporah Abraham Paiss, a 13-year-old Centennial Middle School student. “With vibrant water, soil and plants,” said Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, a 12-year-old Centennial School student.

All, Environment, Sustainable communities

Extraordinary NJ Environmental Ladies Rock!

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Lady Gaga, the environmentalist!The foursome in this “League of Extraordinary Women” video – Lady Gaga (Amanda Nesheiwat), Marilyn Monroe (Rachel Wieland), Wonder Woman (Leslie Raucher) and Hillary Clinton (whom I don’t recognize) are in real life, powerful environmental advocates in their own right. Spending a few minutes with them in their super-power incarnations – what I can say? It’s the chance of a life time, and one you will NOT want to miss.

These women pack powerful sustainable punches into the statements they make in, but the fun is how delightful they are. Don’t be surprised if you like Amanda’s Lady Gaga almost better than the real thing. Thanks for a few minutes of sheer enjoyment, ladies!

!–Lady Gaga, the environmentalist!–>

All, Environment, Justice, Protection, recycle/repurposed

Responsible computer and e-waste disposal

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e-waste-recycle binI was just about to give some old computers to someone who contacted me through Freecycle, claiming to be a recycler, when I learned at a seminar that a lot of electronic waste (e-waste) like computers and electronic gizmos contain highly toxic substances,

such as mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic, beryllium and brominated flame retardants. When the latter are burned at low temperatures they create additional toxins, such as halogenated dioxins and furans – some of the most toxic substances known to humankind.

And, e-waste often ends up being shipped from the US to very poor countries where unskilled laborers – like pregnant women and little children – disassemble them and extract a few materials that are worth money to their employers, exposing themselves in the process to hazardous chemicals and the probability of shortened life expectancies. They are given neither danger warnings or protective gear.

70-80% of the e-waste that’s given to recyclers is exported to less developed countries. Once there, primitive technologies such as open air burning and riverside acid baths are used to extract a few materials. The rest of the toxic materials are usually dumped. Unlike other countries in the world, the U.S. sends a significant portion of its hazardous e-waste to U.S. prisons to process in less-regulated environments without the worker protections and rights afforded in the private sector. Moreover, such operations amount to government subsidies, undermining the development of responsible private-sector recycling infra-structure and distorting the economics of recycling.

http://e-stewards.org/the-e-waste-crisis/

The speaker at that seminar responsibly recycles e-waste, but only for big corporations. They’re not going to take just a few old, broken down laptops off my hands, so what should I do with them? Knowing the correct terminology is useful when searching: I googled “computer responsible recycling” and a few clicks later, learned that there is an e-waste steward right in my town. I’ve emailed that company and hope they’ll soon take those relics off my hands and dispose of them without destroying anyone or my family’s air and water supplies.

Responsible disposal resources

The moral of this story is: only give your old electronics to organizations or companies when you’re sure they will handle them responsibly, either by reconditioning them or breaking them down without poisoning anyone in the process. Use these resources to find a responsible disposal recipient:

You can give your computer away to be refurbished and shipped overseas if it’s reasonably new and works, or look over this guide to learn how to recycle your electronic item responsibly.