Earthday and "E-Waste"

When Earth Day was established optimists hoped that new technology would help to reduce the use of coal, oil, insecticides and other pollutants but now it seems that one of the biggest threats to the environment is technology itself. Scientists have found that lots of computers, cell phones, televisions, etc. contain hazardous chemicals (e-waste) that may be polluting people’s water supply. According to www.cnn.com activists are launching and Earth Day campaign to inform the public about recycling these items.
The biggest offenders according to the report are cell phones, because they hit the environment twice with pollution. First they are made with gold and other metals that have to be mined which the EPA coincides the nations leading toxic polluter. Then they are usually discarded into landfills and begin to leak lead and other heavy meatless into the land, which eventually leads to pollution in nearby water supplies.
The EPA states that Americans have about 500 million obsolete cell phones and about 130 million more are added each year, which equals to 65000 tons of waste. Earthworks (an activist group) says that less then 2 percent are recycled. Which entails the being sent to consumers in Latin America or Asia or taken apart for gold and other parts. A representative from Earthworks who is launching a campaign to coincide with Earth Day in cities such as Washington, Philadelphia and New Orleans says that it is unclear what happens to the other 98 percent of the cell phones. His goal is to recycle at least 1 million cell phones this year.