In February 2023, Community Service Committee representatives Saivi Gadi ’25 and Kyle Sha ’23 organized an incredibly successful electronics recycling drive at MICDS. MICDS families were invited to visit campus on a Sunday afternoon to drop off unused electronics for
appropriate recycling. A group of student volunteers, along with Erin Hamill, Director of Upper School Community Service, met a steady stream of cars at the A Lot flagpole, offloading a variety of outdated and unused technology for storage before their recycling partner, Executive Personal Computers (EPC), could pick everything up this week.
In our current digital age,
electronic recycling is absolutely
necessary as disposing of these
devices in landfills can lead to
significant environmental challenges.
Electronics contain many hazardous
chemicals that can harm the
environment if not properly disposed
of. To raise awareness and promote
safe disposal practices, the
community service committee organized an electronic waste recycling
drive in our middle and upper schools two years ago, in partnership with Executive Personal Computers (EPC). This past Sunday, we successfully completed our second e-waste recycling drive, with a lot of participation from MICDS families! Moving forward, we plan to hold an annual electronic recycling drive in February to encourage proper disposal of old
electronics and minimize the negative impact of e-waste on our environment.
EPC is a company that recycles and disposes of e-waste using the proper safety guidelines. First, EPC follows the NAID AAA (The National
Association for Information Destruction) certified process of wiping the machines clean of any personal data. Once data has been wiped, the company tries to give the equipment a second life, by donating devices to charity. If devices cannot be reused, they are broken down into raw materials, like aluminum, copper, glass, gold, iron, platinum, steel and tin.
Then, these materials are sent to processors to be refined and eventually turned into new goods. Additionally, EPC has world-class recycling facilities, which allows them to safely remove and keep toxic materials out of the environment. For more information, see here.
Around 20 MICDS families participated
in this e-waste drive! Some items we
collected were old speakers, a tube TV,
flip phones, DVD players, tables, iPhones,
cables and wires, monitors, computers,
laptops, CPUs, printers, VCRs, headsets,
and gaming consoles. We collected 5
TVs, 6 printers, 5 full large boxes of
miscellaneous small items and wires, and
maybe around 10 laptops.
Thank you to all MICDS families that participated by dropping off their unwanted electronics. As you upgrade your devices and clean out your clutter over the next year, please remember to recycle responsibly or start a box of donations for the next MICDS electronics recycling drive!
