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Is electronic waste (or e-waste) a global problem or an investment opportunity?  I’m talking about the three billion pieces of consumer electronics that are headed to the trash pile.

I was reading an article in PC Magazine about the “greening” of the electronics industry.  According to the article, e-waste (discarded electronics) may be hazardous to the health of our dumps.  As little as 0.014 grams of mercury is enough to contaminate the fish in a 20-acre lake.  Yet a typical PC contains 0.5 grams of mercury - enough they say to poison the Great Lakes.

Computers are the easiest e-waste to recycle.  They break down into reusable materials and components.  However, monitors and TV have the lowest recycling value.  And with the big switch from tube TV to flat screen LCD and plasma HDTVs there is going to be a huge increase in the number of old TVs entering the waste stream. 

There are some “green” things we can do to help fight e-waste.

Our local town has a special area in the recycle yard for computers, printers, and TVs.  Presumably, they send them on for recycling instead off to the dump.  This week I noticed a several people carting printers OUT of the recycle yard - it turns out that Staples was offering $50 off a new printer if you brought in an old one.  That is truly recycling that pays!

It’s estimated that one in three Americans will get a new cell phone this year.  There are several programs for recycling old cell phones, including cellphonesforsoldiers.com, recellular.com, and recyclemycellphone.org.

Most PC manufacturers offer some “green” machines - but that often just means they consume less power.  One company (Zonbu) takes it a step further:  Their mini PC has no hard drive, is Energy Star certified, and is the first PC Mag Green Approved product.  It is manufactured by Everex Systems (EVRX), who also offers their own energy efficient desktop. 

There are also a variety of equity funds that specialize in green investing.  New Alternative (NALFX) had returns in 2007 of more than 33 percent.  And Spectra Green Fund (SPEGX) is a multi-cap growth fund with 2007 returns of over 26 percent.

Whether e-waste becomes a global problem or an opportunity is up to us.

Manny Backus
First Hour Trader

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