New York Electronics Recycling Day

Two weekends ago, on a Sunday so beautiful I claimed that spring had finally arrived in the Northeast (for the third time in three weeks), one side of Union Square was cordoned off for the Lower East Side Ecology Center's Electronic Waste Recycling Day. Electronics are designed to be used more than once. And technology develops and improves rapidly--so rapidly that we should send software engineers to the Olympics for the 40 meter dash.

One of the downsides of this rapid development is how quickly our devices become obsolete, either by design or by functional capabilities. And let's be clear as a brand new monitor screen: advanced technology is one of the greatest things about our country. The problem is that many of the devices are designed for the dump. Fortunately, we're not without our ways of recycling our old electronics--and getting some sunshine in the process.