Reducing E-Waste in Florida

With gorgeous beaches and year-round warmth, the Sunshine State is one of the most popular vacation spots

While many residents already do their part to maintain the state’s natural beauty by recycling paper and plastic items, another important product category also needs to be recycled: electronics.

Rocycle is committed to helping keep the state of Florida beautiful by helping businesses properly recycle their old electronics. If you are a small business owner, contact Rocycle today and let us dispose of your old electronics to help keep our great state beautiful.

Reducing E-Waste in Florida

Electronic waste (e-waste) is growing at three times the rate of any other waste. The EPA states that of the 20 million computers that became obsolete in 1998, only 13% were reused or recycled.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection strongly recommends recycling all unwanted electronic products such as televisions, computers, and cell phones. These electronics and many others contain toxic elements such as zinc, lead, nickel, and chromium, which can cause serious health problems if touched or ingested. If not properly recycled and just thrown away in a landfill, these toxic elements can seep into the soil and groundwater, harming the natural ecosystem and overall environment.

In other parts of the world, this has made some areas uninhabitable. For example, Ghana’s Agbogbloshie area, an informal dumping area, is one of the worst toxic threats in the world due to e-waste.

At Rocycle, our mission is to encourage and provide a service for the recycling of office electronics so that they do not end up in landfills and harm the wildlife in Florida.

Electronic Recycling Helps Maintain Florida’s Natural Beauty

The best way to get your office organized is to recycle your old electronics. By doing this, you’ll free up some space around your office, get some money back towards new equipment, and be able to focus on your work.

Protecting the Ocean

E-Waste does not have to be dumped directly into the ocean to impact it. E-waste in landfills can affect marine wildlife over time. The toxic chemicals in e-waste that do not organically break down can contaminate groundwater. Polluted groundwater can reach rivers or even the ocean, and kill fish and other wildlife.

Reducing the Need to Mine for Resources

The benefits of recycling electronics also include reducing the mining of virgin resources. Many of the metals found in computers, cell phones, and other electronics can be reused in other products. This reduces the production costs and resources used in manufacturing, using less water and energy to make products.

Electronic Recycling Helps Florida’s Economy

Providing Jobs

Rocycle is committed to reducing e-waste and accomplishes this task by hiring employees to run their Florida facilities. By recycling electronics, you are helping a local business and providing a member of your local community with a job.

Maintaining Tourism in Florida

Electronic recycling is beneficial not only for the environment but for Florida’s economy as well. Recycling electronics is important to help preserve Florida’s tourism cash flow, which is one of the biggest sectors of the state’s economy. Tourism is a major player in Florida’s economic landscape. This past year, Florida had nearly 118 million domestic visitors – the highest number in state history. This led the state to report a staggering hotel revenue of $17.3 billion.

In 2019, Florida’s leisure and hospitality industry accounted for:
  • Nearly 6% of real state GDP
  • 14% of total employment
  • 15% of state sales tax collection

By recycling your electronics, you are reducing e-waste and helping keep Florida stay beautiful and remain the perfect vacation spot.

Help Us Help Keep Florida Beautiful

Rocycle is committed to reducing e-waste from harming our local environment. Contact Rocycle and let us help keep Florida beautiful.