Recycling electronics for a good cause
Lloyd Sower reports
TAMPA, Fla. - In the graveyard of keystrokes and megabytes, a mountain of discarded computers has become an avalanche.
"Right now in the U.S. we’re disposing of roughly 300,000 computers every day and most of them end up in the landfill," explained CEO of eSmart Recycling Tony Selvaggio.
Selvaggio started the company in Tampa seven years ago. Currently, he has 19 employees and many of them go over old computers and save parts that are still good. They also shred hard drives to destroy personal data, but that’s just part of what Selvaggio says is important.
Selvaggio provides good, affordable computers to non-profits such as the AMRoC Fab Lab at University Mall.
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"Having computers on-site that can do the programming that kids are learning to do things on is very important," shared Director Terri Willingham. "In some cases, it may be the only computer access they have."
ESmart has deals with companies to dispose of their old computers and individuals can recycle on-site too. Selvaggio believes he’s making an impact.
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"We can measure that impact from an environmental standpoint," said Selvaggio. "We’ll know exactly how much we’re diverting from the landfill, but also from a social impact perspective, we know how much we’re deploying back into the community because of those efforts."
Anyone with old computers or flat screens to recycle can visit www.esmartrecycling.com for drop-off locations.
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