What Do You Do with Your Techno-Junk?

 Electronic waste accounts for 70 percent of the overall toxic waste currently found in landfills.

- Global Futures Foundation                                 

I received some pretty cool gifts for my birthday this month and one of them was this:

It's a bowl made from an old vinyl record album ("Saturday Night Fever" actually!).  My son picked this up for me in Philly.  I really love this.  It's an album from my era and looks great as a decorative bowl on my piano.

This makes me think about how we sometimes have a hard time parting with the things that were connected with our youth - even though we may never even pull them out of their storage boxes again.  And, especially when it comes to technology, even if we do venture a trip down memory lane the things we find may be unusable or toxic to just throw in the garbage.

If you're hanging on to records, cds or computer discs that you no longer have the technology with which to run them on, you have some choices.  

Try a craft.  For vinyl records, you can actually make your own bowl like the one my son gave me.  Old cds can be turned into all sorts of other items: coasters, sun-catchers, even clocks!

If you don't feel up to crafting but are still motivated to clear out some old stuff, make sure you dispose of your techno-junk responsibly.  Participate in local electronics recycling events in your area or check Earth911 to find out how and where to dispose of it.