\nwaste (or e-waste) consists of consumer electronic equipment (personal
\ncomputers, media players, TV monitors, and\/or audio visual equipment) \u00a0that is obsolete or no longer needed. \u00a0Disposing of electronic waste with regular
\ntrash is potentially harmful to people and bad for the environment. \u00a0Electronics often contains heavy metals (such
\nas lead, mercury, and cadmium) -if discarded in landfills, the heavy metals could
\neventually leech into the surrounding soil and end up in water sources.. \u00a0Disposal of e-waste with regular garbage
\ncollection by local sanitation departments is actually illegal
\nin New York state.<\/a> <\/p>\n
Although
\nthe Center for Jewish History is only fifteen years old, a large amount of unused
\nelectronic equipment had built up \u201cbehind the scenes\u201d during that time. \u00a0With increasing improvements in technology, many
\nold computers, scanners, and printers had been replaced. The obsolete electronics
\nwere <\/p>\n
usually placed Obsolete electronic products \u00a0The Leo Baeck Institute staff \u00a0Once An assortment of old desktop The By Lauren Paustian, Associate Librarian for Technical Services, Leo Baeck Institute The Center for Jewish History and its partner institutions strive to preserve Jewish history and culture for future generations. As collection stewards and community builders, many staff members of the Center for Jewish History and its partner organizations also make an effort to promote environmental responsibility. Last year, a number of employees from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,268,271,269,42,270,267],"class_list":["post-1318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-post","tag-center-for-jewish-history","tag-earth-day","tag-electronics-recycling","tag-ewaste","tag-leo-baeck-institute","tag-recycling","tag-sustainability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nin out-of-the-way locations such as closets, under desks, and on shelves to be
\ndealt with later. \u00a0The e-waste was taking
\nup valuable space and in some cases creating unnecessary clutter. \u00a0<\/p>\n![\"image\"](\"https:\/\/78.media.tumblr.com\/fdf337510b5208e753713f7abd831400\/tumblr_inline_o601nqyT481r0yq0k_540.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n
\nthat were no longer needed at the Center for Jewish History or its partners.Photo by Claire Kenny, Center for
\nJewish History<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\nCenter for Jewish History\u2019s sustainability committee coordinated a collection
\nof e-waste in the building. \u00a0Over one
\nhundred items were collected\u2014everything from desktop computers, to keyboards,
\nto fax machines, to electronic pencil sharpeners. \u00a0One of the partner organizations even found
\nseveral typewriters and a teletype machine.
\nThe e-waste was first evaluated to see if any of it could be shared
\namong other departments or offices. \u00a0The
\ncomputer hard drives also had to be wiped clean by the hard-working information
\ntechnology staff.<\/p>\n![\"image\"](\"https:\/\/78.media.tumblr.com\/72318113cf9844b9dc8b687cc4e186a2\/tumblr_inline_o601ot54Jy1r0yq0k_540.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n
\ncollecting electronic waste from their office. Photo by Tracey Felder, Leo Baeck Institute<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\nall the e-waste in the building was collected and analyzed, the next step was
\nto determine how to responsibly dispose of it.
\nSeveral organizations in New York City sponsor e-waste recycling
\ninitiatives and drop-off events. \u00a0Many of
\nthese organizations do not accept bulk quantities of electronics from offices
\nand other businesses. \u00a0The sustainability
\ncommittee ended up working with the Lower East Side Ecology Center<\/a> to pick-up the e-waste from the Center.<\/p>\n![\"image\"](\"https:\/\/78.media.tumblr.com\/67e0de8e65226f68ef8ec28ec86c78fc\/tumblr_inline_o601quqOTF1r0yq0k_540.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n
\ncomputer monitors and hard drives waiting to be recycled. Photo by Claire Kenny, Center
\nfor Jewish History<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\nSustainability subcommittee hopes to hold more electronic waste drives at the
\nCenter for Jewish History in the future, perhaps taking place every two
\nyears. \u00a0At future events staff or visitors
\nmay \u00a0also be able to deposit their
\npersonal electronic waste.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"