hances are someone in your family is eyeing the latest video-game system, flat-screen TV, or sleek laptop. But what should you do with the clunky old machines your high-tech gadgets replace? If they don't end up collecting dust around your house, they'll probably end up in the trash.

More and more people are tossing their outdated electronic gadgets into the garbage—and it's causing a heap of trouble. As a result, the United Nations (U.N.) has kicked off a worldwide effort to tackle the growing problem of electronic waste, or e-waste. E-waste includes televisions, computers, and cell phones.

Landfills are quickly piling up with tossed out TVs, computers, and cell phones that they may soon cause a health hazard, say experts. And the flood of used electronic devices is rapidly increasing all over the world. That's because electronics are becoming more and more affordable and get outdated more quickly. "The demand for electrical and electronic devices is exploding," Roger Kuehr told BBC News. Kuehr heads the U.N. project called Solving the E-Waste Problem.

The Problem Piles Up

The e-waste problem is particularly severe in the United States. Americans generated nearly 2 million tons of electronic waste in 2005, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. About 133,000 personal computers are discarded by U.S. homes and businesses each day, researchers estimate.

Unfortunately, in the United States only a small number (between 10 and 15 percent) of computers and other electronics are recycled. The rest usually ends up in landfills. Last year, California was among several states that passed laws prohibiting people from throwing out electronic waste with their regular garbage. Electronic waste should be put in hazardous waste disposal sites. That's because e-waste can be dangerous. High-tech gadgets don't make you sick when you use them, but electronic waste contains toxic metals and chemicals that can seep into the soil and groundwater. Those toxins can harm the environment and human health.

Think About It! What are some ways you can help reduce the e-waste problem?

Searching for Solutions

As part of its plan, the U.N. is encouraging electronic companies to improve the ways they recycle e-waste and to create new products out of less harmful materials. Computer giants—companies like Dell and Hewlett Packard—have signed up to do their part. "Our goal is to make it as easy to recycle a computer as it is buy one," says Dell company spokesperson Bryant Hilton.

But it's not just computers piling up. The television industry is finding itself in the spotlight. Used TVs now make up the largest percentage of the world's e-waste. "The TV industry needs to step up.," says Barbara Kyle, who leads the Computer TakeBack Campaign in San Francisco, California. "Ultimately, they must design their stuff in a way that makes [it] easier to recycle."

Explore ways to reduce your trash.

Try this Garbage and Recycling Word Search!


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