The NY/NJ Super Bowl Host Committee and the NFL are partnering with Verizon and the Broadway Green Alliance to collect and recycle electronic waste in New York and New Jersey.
The host committee and the NFL say the e-waste recycling events are part of a series of sustainability initiatives aimed at “greening” the Super Bowl and making a positive environmental impact in New York and New Jersey.
The first of two collections will take place in New Jersey on Jan. 7 from 10am to 2pm at the AnythingIT Fair Lawn Headquarters. On Jan. 8, a collection will take place in New York City at Duffy Square in Times Square from 10am to 2pm. AnythingIT, which is e-Stewards certified, is the electronics recycler for both events.
Verizon says it has collected 1.5 million pounds of e-waste at similar events since the launch of its recycling rally program in 2009.
Citing EPA figures, the NFL says the US generated more than 2.44 million tons and 3.4 million tons of e-waste in 2010 and 2011, respectively. In 2010, 19.6 percent of that year’s total e-waste was recycled, and in 2011, 24.6 percent of that year’s total e-waste was recycled.
In 2010, 152 million mobile devices were disposed of in the US. The EPA has indicated that recycling as few as 1 million cellphones can recover 50 lbs. of gold, 550 lbs. of silver, 20 lbs. of palladium, and 20,000 lbs. of copper. An October UN report says treated e-waste can be put to profitable use, calling it a “gold mine” and saying printed circuit boards are probably the “richest ore stream you’re ever going to find.”
Recycling e-waste uses a fraction of the energy needed to mine new metals and reduces the production of CO2 and sulfur dioxide emissions. E-waste also creates jobs – compared to disposal; computer reuse creates 296 more jobs per for every 10,000 tons of material disposed each year.
End-of-life electronics worldwide are expected to increase 33 percent in just five years, reaching 65.5 million metric tons annually by 2017, according to data from Solving the E-Waste Problem (StEP) Initiative, a UN-backed alliance.