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“Together we are all making a difference.”
— Virginia Nicols
Electronic Waste: A Growing Issue
Electronic Waste: A Growing Issue
According to the United Nations’ Global E-waste Monitor report, a record 53.6 million metric tonnes (Mt) of electronic waste was generated worldwide in 2019, up 21 percent in just five years. The new report also predicts global e-waste - discarded products with a battery or plug - will reach 74 Mt by 2030, almost a doubling of e-waste in just 16 years. This makes e-waste the world’s fastest-growing domestic waste stream, fueled mainly by higher consumption rates of electric and electronic equipment, short life cycles, and few options for repair. Another number in the same UN report is even more stunning: only 17.4 percent of 2019's e-waste was collected and recycled. This means 82.6 percent of the e-waste were dumped or burned rather than being collected for treatment and reuse. This results in the huge loss of valuable gold, silver, copper, platinum, and other recoverable materials from the supply chain and causes serious health, environmental and societal issues.
Please download the "White Paper: Electronic Waste: A Growing Issue" for more research data on the global issue.
About Sage Hill Branch
About Sage Hill Branch
The Sage Hill Branch of the Teens Against E-waste is located in Newport Beach, California. Our focus is to raise the community's awareness of e-waste.
To fight against E-waste for our community, the Sage Hill Branch of the TAE was founded in December 2021 by Katelyn Gan and is one of the first three branches of Teens Against E-waste. Our goal is clear - Urge our communities to recycle e-waste responsibly. The first step we took is to connect with local communities and provide local information on how to dispose of their e-waste in a safe, legitimate, and environmentally friendly way.
Our Efforts
Our Efforts
Connecting with local communities
Connecting with local communities
We obtained some battery collection buckets from Orange County Waste Management and dropped them off at many local communities (Apartment homes, Senior centers, hospitals, libraries, mobile home parks, etc.). We got approvals to place the buckets in the communities so people may drop off dead batteries. We put labels with our contact information on the bucket so that people may contact me when the buckets are filled.
Irvine Mayor Khan's Introduction on Katelyn's Eliminating E-waste Event
Irvine Mayor Khan's Introduction on Katelyn's Eliminating E-waste Event
Eliminating E-waste Irvine Event and Campaign
Eliminating E-waste Irvine Event and Campaign
Battery Drive at The Meadows Irvine
Battery Drive at The Meadows Irvine
E-waste Drive at Laguna Altura Irvine
E-waste Drive at Laguna Altura Irvine
E-waste Drive at The Meadows Irvine
E-waste Drive at The Meadows Irvine
Battery Drive at Santiago Steam School
Battery Drive at Santiago Steam School
Preparing Bucket and Visit local Senior Houses
Preparing Bucket and Visit local Senior Houses
In early December, we designed flier and assembled lots of battery buckets. We set several buckets across Irvine in senior apartments and libraries, and everyone was extremely enthusiastic to help! Our first bucket was full just two weeks after first placing it at Luxaira.
When we initially gave the bucket to Ellie at Luxaira, she told us that it was uncommon for residents to pass through the front office and there was no newsletter or way to get word of the battery bucket out. However, the bucket was so eye-catching, the residents that did see the bucket were extremely excited to donate, and soon, the bucket was filled!
A similar story occurred at The Meadows Senior Community, where in less than three weeks, the bucket was completely full with more batteries in a plastic bag. When I went to pick up those batteries, I ran into an elderly woman. She told me, “This is very thoughtful and good for the environment. I donated some too!”
Upon consulting the leasing managers of some of these locations, I heard many positive effects collecting batteries had. For example, a location that was aware of these issues and eco-friendly told me that it was a huge inconvenience for their maintenance guys to drive back and forth, so they were glad that we had this idea.
Many times, residents and residential homes want to help the environment, but it isn’t worth the long journey to drop off e-waste at a recycling facility, so they just keep or throw away their e-waste which poses its own dangers. This is why, after hearing community members supporting this project, I felt really proud to be doing something to help the community and the environment, and I was even more excited to reach our goal of 1 million batteries.
School Battery Drive
School Battery Drive
To promote our 1 Million Batteries project, we held a battery drive from 1/24/2022 to 2/11/2022 at Sage Hill School. The goal of the event is for students to work together in advisories to collect as many used batteries as possible from their homes to reduce e-waste. In the three weeks, we performed the below steps to promote the battery drive event.
Got permission from the school to run the event
Designed and sent the flyer to the Sage Hill Community
Contacted and recruited volunteers from the school "Giveback" club
Send out grade level blast to advisors to let students know the event
Make an announcement at the senior grade level meeting to introduce battery collection
Introduce the event at the all-student town meeting
Reminder at the freshmen grade level meeting
Finally, set up the battery collection boxes on the campus
Volunteers
Volunteers
Making Announcement
Making Announcement
Battery Collection Boxes
Battery Collection Boxes
Collected batteries
Collected batteries
Take Action and Join Us!
Take Action and Join Us!
If you attend Sage Hill School or a nearby school,
If you attend Sage Hill School or a nearby school,
please join us to protect a healthy environment!
please join us to protect a healthy environment!
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