Here at Ecollo, we believe that recycling is the earth-friendly thing to do, whether it be plastic bottles, paper or your old electronics. Recycling electronics is still a relatively new concept, and as such many people aren't sure where to take the computers they no longer need. We've tried to provide a few suggestions, including the recent "Maill Back" initiative by the United States Postal Service, where old electronic devices could be mailed free-of-charge to a company for recycling.

Once you mail back your old cell phone or turn in your computer for recycling, there's a good chance you never give the device another thought. And why would you; after all you've presumably done a good thing by turning it in to a reputable company instead of sending it to a landfill, right? Ideally that would be the case, but as you'll see in these pictures, once we dispose of our old electronics in what we assume is an environmentally "safe" way, they may become China's problem. We already established last month that donating your old phones may not be exactly as charitable as it seems. Now it seems we have some evidence that recycling our electronics may not be so great either.

It's incredibly disheartening to see a town basically turned into an electronic landfill, especially if we believe we've been doing the right thing by supposedly recycling. Until we can be sure old electronics are being properly handled when we do the "green" thing and turn them in, maybe they really are better off staying stashed away in the back of our drawers and closets.

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