TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 A Tampa-based electronics recycling company is partnering with local organizations to promote September as e-recycling month and encourage people to give old technology a second life.<\/p>\n
eSmart Recycling<\/a> in Tampa accepts a wide range of used electronics and devices, from laptops, monitors and headphones, to toys and household items. Employees sort, test, wipe and break down items so they can be reused, resold or donated.<\/p>\n \u201cAnything with a plug switch or battery, we will take,\u201d said Logan Melton, test bench coordinator at eSmart Recycling.<\/p>\n Melton said computers, tablets and other devices go through a data-wiping process before going on to their second-life.<\/p>\n \u201cThey go through this process if it\u2019s for a customer, if it\u2019s for us selling something, if it\u2019s for us giving back to the community, they all need to be wiped,\u201d Melton said.<\/p>\n Tony Selvaggio founded eSmart Recycling in 2014 after moving from Venezuela. He said many people have not learned the effect old electronics can have when they are thrown away instead of recycled.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that most people don\u2019t fully understand the impact that it\u2019s behind old technology because it\u2019s relatively new, so we\u2019re used to hoarding it, and now we\u2019re starting to get to a point where it\u2019s starting to hit our waste streams,\u201d Selvaggio said.<\/p>\n Selvaggio said e-waste can build up in landfills and may contaminate water supplies if it is not handled correctly. He said 80% of technology is thrown away instead of recycled, while the U.S. produces more than 60 million tons of electronics every year.<\/p>\n eSmart Recycling has partnered with Tampa Bay Tech<\/a> and the Digital Education Foundation<\/a> to help raise awareness about e-recycling.<\/p>\n \u201cThe partnership with the Digital Education Foundation and the partnership with somebody like TBT plays such an important role to create a solution,\u201d Selvaggio said. \u201cBecause you can\u2019t tackle the problem on your own.\u201d<\/p>\n The company also connects refurbished technology with local children. Melton said about half of the laptops in good enough condition at the warehouse will end up in the hands of children.<\/p>\n The Digital Education Foundation says roughly 85,000 households in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties do not have internet access, and that donated technology can help close the digital divide.<\/p>\n For more information about e-recycling and how to get rid of old electronics, click here<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 A Tampa-based electronics recycling company is partnering with local organizations to promote September as e-recycling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[274,276,146935,115,135,137,136,278,835],"class_list":["post-408222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-top-stories","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-jt-lynch","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}