Georgia advocates warn about dangers of improperly thrown-away electronic devices

All kinds of electronics are thrown away daily, but how they're disposed of can have a major impact on the people around you, animals, and the environment. The World Health Organization says discarded electronic devices can be a threat to people's health and the environment if they aren't disposed of properly. "Right now, it's actually the fastest-growing waste stream in the world," said Georgia PIRG consumer associate Lindsay Juhlin. "Since 2014, we've disposed of 1.7 billion pounds of electronic waste just from cutoff software support and cloud services, and in Georgia we've created an estimated 460 million pounds of electronic waste." A new report from the nonprofit organization highlights what Juhlin said is a major contributor to e-waste: the massive number of devices that no longer work because the manufacturers end software updates. Georgia PIRG is working with other nonprofits to push for legislation around the Fair Repair Act introduced by U.S. Reps. Joe Morelle and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez earlier this year. This act would require manufacturers to make the parts, tools, and information necessary to repair modern electronics available to consumers and independent repair shops. Similar reforms have already been passed in 10 other states . Juhlin calls this a consumer rights issue. "When we buy an electronic, we own it, and we should be able to fix it and keep it for as long as we possibly can, and we can't do that when companies are cutting off support without warning," she said. Instead of putting electronics in a household trash can, metro Atlanta residents like Noreen Cochran choose to dispose of electronics in a different way. Cochran dropped off a multitude of electronics at the Decatur location for the Center for Hard to Recycle Materials, or CHaRM. Cochran said she's actively decluttering her house. "I dropped off electronics, CDs, and DVDs," Cochran said. "People can come and bring things and know that they're being taken care of in an environmentally responsible way. There are large items that I don't need anymore, and nobody else needs, and they can be repurposed and recycled, and I feel good about that." Cochran said she hopes other people will do the same. The nonprofit Live Thrive runs CHaRM and partners with electronics recycler Nova Solutions. Emma Dufresne, the organization's program manager, said roughly 200 to 500 people show up to each of the two recycling sites on the days they're open. She estimates that they've collected nearly 200,000 pounds of electronics in 2026 so far. Dufresne said it's important for people to know that e-waste comes from anything that needs electricity or batteries to function, noting that there are dangers beneath the surface of devices that are improperly disposed of. "When you're throwing your electronics in the trash, they're going to the landfill. That can be really harmful. Electronics do have hazardous materials in them, so there are heavy metals like lead, mercury, and even flame retardants in some of the electronics that we have. There are copper and other metals that we can actually be reusing for other materials," she said. "There's more risk for that hazardous material to end up in our water streams, our soil, our environment, and places we really don't want it to be. We want to protect the environment around us and give our materials new life." More information on cleaning up e-waste can be found here . In: Georgia Recycling Environment Featured Local Savings