How to Deal With Mercury When Recycling Electronics

By eHow Computers Editor

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Mercury is a highly toxic metal used in many electronic components, especially flat panel computer monitors and televisions. Mercury is so toxic that if just 1/70 of a teaspoon leaches from a landfill into a 20-acre lake, it will make all the fish in the lake unsafe to eat. Here's how dispose of it properly.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Step1

Consider donating your old monitor and computer to one of the many organizations that refurbish them and give them to poor people in the U.S. and in other countries. Through these organizations and the technological training they provide, your old equipment can become a valuable tool instead of potentially dangerous e-waste (electronic waste).

Step2

List your personal or business electronic and computer equipment on one of the exchange websites. These are set up so individuals and businesses can trade, buy or sell used, but usable, equipment without going through third party brokers. This arrangement puts people and businesses in touch for mutually beneficial transactions while benefiting the environment (See the Resource section).

Step3

Take your old equipment to a conventional recycling center. The old equipment will be dismantled and the mercury and other hazardous materials will be extracted and put back into the production cycle.

Tips & Warnings

There's a link between high levels of mercury in humans and brain and kidney damage; additionally many dentists are removing their patient's fillings that contain mercury as a health precaution.