Tips for reusing, reducing, recycling your devices

Take a closer look at your newest television — not only is it thinner and lighter than past generations — but it’s also consuming less energy. 

Across the consumer technology ecosystem, innovators have worked diligently to make our devices more efficient, from the materials used to create them to the energy they require to operate. Designers and engineers are finding new ways to deliver increased capabilities with fewer raw material inputs in more efficient ways.  

{mosads}Our TVs, computers, smartphones, and other devices accounted for just 12 percent of residential electricity consumption in the U.S. in 2013 (down from 13.2 percent in 2010). Energy savings like these are the result of the industry’s constant innovation, competition and public-private partnerships. 

The trend toward lower energy usage continues with two voluntary agreements to reduce electricity consumption in set-top boxes and small network equipment. The set-top box agreement has saved consumers $500 million on their energy bills and avoided nearly three million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. The more recent agreement for small network will reduce energy consumption by 10 to 20 percent.

The consumer technology industry’s production of smaller, lighter, more efficient electronics has made electronic waste the fastest shrinking waste stream in the U.S., according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). And less material used in products ultimately means less waste from those products when they reach the end of their lifecycle.

Our industry is doing something remarkable – growing sales and revenues year over year while simultaneously shrinking our environmental footprint.   

Consumers can do their part, too, to green the tech ecosystem. Inside many of our older devices are parts and components that can be reused in the manufacturing or remanufacturing of new products. Apple reported that it recycled nearly $40 million worth of gold from recycled products in 2015 alone. Recycling older electronics allows valuable components like microprocessors to be harvested and reused in new devices.

In addition to repurposing the materials inside our older devices, many of these devices can be reused intact by a second or even third owner. Giving a consumer technology product another chance at life not only keeps it out of the waste stream, but also conserves more resources than breaking it into basic materials for recycling. Today, retailers of mobile devices provide more than 10,000 buyback & trade-in locations nationwide.

Products that can’t be reused should be recycled. Last year, consumers like you responsibly recycled more than 700 million pounds of electronics at 8,300 electronics recycling collection locations nationwide, according to the recently released eCycling Leadership Initiative Report. To help consumers find these recycling locations, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)^TM created GreenerGadgets.org, which offers a geolocator tool based on your zip code.

But electronics recycling is a national issue that merits a national approach. Rules for recycling electronics vary widely from state to state, making compliance complicated, and shifting resources away from collection and recycling to a labyrinth of forms, fees and reports to file. It’s critical for the environment, economic growth and future innovation that we get the balance of waste reduction, device reuse and e-cycling right.

With rapid product development cycles and robust consumer demand for the latest capabilities and features, the challenges associated with electronics materials management are shifting nearly as fast as the technology. Now is the time to create a single national approach to recognize more material-efficient products, embrace reuse and make recycling electronics as easy as purchasing them. Let’s build a cleaner, greener, tech-friendly future together.

Shapiro is president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)™, the U.S. trade association representing more than 2,200 consumer technology companies, and author of the New York Times best-selling books, Ninja Innovation: The Ten Killer Strategies of the World’s Most Successful Businesses and The Comeback: How Innovation Will Restore the American Dream. His views are his own. Connect with him on Twitter: @GaryShapiro