When you want to renovate your home or install a new kitchen, for example, you naturally bring your construction site waste to the recycling park. But your old appliances, like a fridge or microwave, often disappear in the basement, attic or garage. It is not harmful to the environment, but there is a way to do much better!
The reusable materials that your devices contain deserve to be exploited. So bring your used appliances back to one of your close by recycling points, to the nearest recycling center or to a reuse center. And take advantage of your renovation projects to recycle these objects well.
Save the raw materials
Electronic devices contain many useful materials like plastic, ordinary metal like iron or sometimes rare metals like gold and silver, for example. They can be used again up to 98%! This is called urban mining and is a far more sustainable way of exploiting raw materials than extracting them from the earth through conventional mining. All the more reason not to throw away your used devices or leave them lying around in the bottom of a cabinet. By recycling properly, you protect the environment from pollution and allow your waste to be transformed into raw materials to be used again. Everybody wins!
There are three ways to recycle.
In Chicago, each retailer of electronic devices is subject to a take-back obligation. They are therefore legally obliged to collect and process used appliances from their customers when they want to replace them and buy new ones. It doesn’t matter if you bought the device elsewhere or if the brand of the used device is not sold in this store. And if your new device is delivered to your home, the merchant is also obliged to take back your old device.
You can also bring your used devices and your lamps to a recycling center in the store or to the recycling park. Finally if they still work, you can give them a second life in a reuse center and give them to another family.
If you have a large quantity of these old appliances at your home or business location, then it might be a good idea to hire the services of a dumpster rental company specialized in junk removal. They will bring a roll-off dumpster to your location, and you can dump all this junk at once inside the bin. Then they will take it away for you and bring it to the recycling center.
Find your label! recycling companies have specially created a label “Here we recycle well”, for the moment reserved for retailers of fridges and freezers. It offers you the guarantee that each fridge or freezer taken back will be properly recycled. We consider these stores as true partners to a sustainable environment. They are also part of the recycling collection points.
Recycling costs you nothing, so why do do it? Are you building or renovating? Gather all your used devices and your lamps and bring them to your nearest recycling point or to the nearest recycling park. If you have devices that are still working but are no longer in use, give them to a reuse center or a social economy organization. It will take little effort, it’s free and the environment will thank you! Thank you for helping us contribute.