Five smartphones, two tablets, two printers, two PC towers, an original X-Box and an old CRT television (the heavy kind that squeals when you turn it on). No, that’s not the list of electronic devices that I currently use. That’s the list of dead devices in my house, tucked away in closets or (in the case of the TV) pulling alternate duty as a table in its retirement. That’s the roster of the used-to-be-useful. Some of them are broken, and some of them fell victim to software errors, but at least half of them are out of service simply because “it was time to upgrade.” “Time to upgrade.” What does that even mean? And who decides when it’s time? Apple? Do we upgrade every time they come up with a new iDea? Samsung? Whose collection of Galaxy devices is starting to have its own gravitational pull? Maybe it’s the cell service provider, who wants to lock you in to another two-year contract with the promise of a brighter, shinier, more functional device. Because that’s it, isn’t it? We’re chasing functionality. We’re constantly looking to the future to see what the next big thing is. Touch screens, Bluetooth and mobile WiFi have led the charge thus far, stamping out anything with actual buttons or cords, because Progress. Meanwhile, those Stone Age devices from last decade have just vanished into the Ether. Or so we’d like to imagine.

Where does my phone go when I throw it away?

That’s a great question. On the surface, it’s a simple one. You chuck your phone, and it ends up in a landfill. And that seems like no big deal. Five ounces of plastic and silicon shouldn’t be a big problem to this great big ol’ Earth we live on. But what about 3.8 billion ounces? That’s about 119,000 tons, which is the approximate weight of the 759 million Android smartphones sold around the world in 2013 alone. And that’s just Android. There were another 209 million smartphones sold that used other operating systems. That was in 2013, two years ago. And what happens about every two years on your cell phone plan? That’s right. It’s time for an upgrade. And when those 968 million smartphone users chuck their phones, your five ounces of plastic and silicon just became a mountain. But that’s just phones. We can’t forget about the printers, TVs, copiers, scanners and computers that all require upgrades as soon as something better comes along. In fact, as of 2009, all of those discarded mobile devices (141 million of them) comprised less than 1 percent of e-waste by weight. If the weight of 141 million smartphones is 22,000 tons (still assuming 5 ounces per phone), that means in 2009 alone, we discarded over 22 million tons of electronics. TVs and computer monitors made up about half of the weight, since that was about the time everyone was discarding their CRTs in favor of flat panel screens. But surely we didn’t just toss them out, right? I mean, we’re responsible world citizens. We recycle things, don’t we? Yes, we do. About 25 percent of them, at least.

Why should we recycle electronics?

Remember that five ounce of plastic and silicon you were about to toss? It’s actually five ounces of plastic, silicon, copper, lead, bromine, nickel, tin, arsenic, silver, gold, yttrium, lanthanum and a number of other, less-pronounceable elements. The speakers and motors require rare earth elements that can only be mined in a few places around the world. The case and screen are made using materials that can be toxic if they bleed into the water table. Internal connections are soldered using a tin/lead alloy, and we all know how dangerous lead can be. And that’s not even taking into account the precious metals that are used as conductors to build the circuits. Right now, China is the world’s primary source of rare earths. We’re desperately searching for more in order to feed our upgrade addiction, but is that really the best solution? What happens when we mine all of the accessible rare earth elements? Do we turn to the moon? Comets and asteroids? What will we strip next? And what about the environmental impact of mining those rare earths? According to the article I linked in the previous paragraph, mining rare earth elements produces the radioactive element thorium as a byproduct. And the mine that used to be in California was shut down for leaking 300,000 gallons of the stuff into the surrounding water supply. E-waste recycling programs are springing up all over the place to help stop this sort of thing from happening. But for them to be successful, it requires a little bit of effort on all our parts. Sure, researching and finding a drop-off point requires a little bit more effort than leaving it by the curb or shamefully stashing it at the bottom of the trash bag where the neighbors won’t see. But in terms of environmental impact, the effort is well worth it. As for me, I’m gonna stop hording defunct electronics to get the materials they’re made from back into circulation. Maybe the few ounces of reclaimed rare earth elements won’t stop the mining process entirely, and maybe it won’t keep a whole lot of toxins out of the water supply, but it’s what I can do, right now. And if we all do it, we’ll make a difference. And where will I start? With five smartphones.