Last month, residents of Fayette County and surrounding areas brought tons of old computers, printers, fax machines, cell phones, and similar electronics to the parking lot of Christ Our Shepherd Lutheran Church for drop off and recycling.

According to the congregation’s environmental stewardship chairman Bill Grabill, this community outreach and environmental stewardship effort was part of the congregation’s long standing commitment to live out its covenant to care for God’s creation.

“The event was deemed a success by our business partner in this effort, Creative Recycling Systems of Georgia,” Grabill said.

According to The National Safety Council, more than 300 million personal computers will need to be recycled over the next four years.

This rapid advancement in technology has created an alarming number of electronics being discarded, many of them containing hazardous substances like lead, mercury and cadmium.

With many of the nation’s landfills already filled to capacity, and with the hazardous materials that electronic devices contain, simply dropping obsolete electronics in the trash is not a viable solution.

“Improperly discarded electronics account for more than half of the heavy metals found in our landfills - and can seep out to contaminate our air, water and soil,” said Grabill.

The one-day effort this year collected 25,678 lbs. of out-dated electronics, 280 computers, 312 monitors, 164 printers, 36 scanners, 14 laptops and 12 phones/fax machines.

“This is more than twice the amount of electronics collected on our first recycling day last year,” Grabill said. “The Stewardship Committee thanks all those who participated this year by living out our covenant to care for God’s creation.”

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