There’s always joy in revisiting that storage bin of old electronics. There’s beauty in the past & the appreciation of how far we’ve advanced is necessary to appreciate what we have today & how much was accomplished. As time progressed, so did the number of storage bins I’ve saved, which starts the story of Recycled Today.

Recycled today started as a personal journey to create some art are using floppy disks, epoxy & some old junk lying around. Repurposing obsolete or broken electronics into pieces to tell a time story with context for any generation.

While one may not feel comfortable throwing away old electronics, unintentional hoarding ensues as we naturally keep things of value. Whether excessive or not, arbitrary benchmarks, version control throttling & marketing rebrandings are all contributing factors to this growing collection of older electronics. “In with the new & out with the old,” but where does the “old” go in this cycle of consumerism?

If it’s not in your home, it’ll eventually become classified as e-waste. E-waste is continually becoming a more significant problem as technology advances faster than we can consume. With growing demands comes the exponential increase in e-waste. This waste contains toxic by-products, including toxins like mercury, lead lithium & more that negatively affects humans & the environment handled improperly.

Unfortunately, only 17.4% of e-waste produced in 2019 reached formal management or recycling facilities while the rest was illegally dumped in low- or middle-income countries. While some e-waste is exported to developing countries, these electronics are dismantled by workers & even children. For one, an honest day’s earning comes with the trade-off of working in unregulated working conditions, causing devastating effects among communities—a generational ripple of congenital disabilities & disease stemming from improper e-cycling.

Regardless of what it is, you’ll always have the same choices once that electronic reaches its End of Life.

  1. Sell
  2. Donate
  3. Recycle
  4. Keep

Just recycle properly, think twice before upgrading, or send me your old electronics with an artistic request. 🙂