The news story is pretty much the same, whether it's printed in a community newspaper in Maine, posted on a charitable organization's website in Mississippi or advertized online in Oregon.

"In celebration of Earth Day," it begins, "(ORGANIZATION NAME) is hosting its annual free electronic waste drop-off."

"Green Team organizer (NAME OF ACTIVITY DIRECTOR) encourages the public to visit the parking lot at (LOCAL BUSINESS, SCHOOL, CHURCH) to drop off their used and unwanted computers, monitors, TVs, printers, and other electronics for recycling."

Sometimes the article mentions the toxic components found in e-waste, while others include enthusiastic quotes about saving the planet and helping the community. Seldom do they mention the e-Stewards Standard for Responsible Recycling and Reuse of Electronic Equipment. The news items usually finish by telling how many pounds or tons of e-waste was collected by the Earth Day event last year, as if to challenge local environmentally minded folks to try to beat that record.

No one knows for sure how much e-waste is salvaged on Earth Day every year, but there sure are a lot of collection events. I tried to count how many Earth Day e-waste collection events as I could using various search engines, but the closest I can guess is about 3,500 in the U.S. on or around April 22 this year.

Weight estimates of e-waste collected at each event range from 20,000 to 200,000 pounds, according to various organizations, so it's hard to calculate a precise total. But if every collection event gathered only 2,000 pounds of e-waste on Earth Day -- which is a modest assessment -- that would amount to 3,500 tons. Since 80 percent of all e-waste is exported overseas, that translates to roughly 2,800 tons of e-waste bound for dangerous disassembly and doubtful disposition in Asia or Africa from Earth Day alone.

Jill Vaske, Redemtech executive vice president, in her new posting, "Earth Day May Be Worst Day of Year for E-Waste," notes that every state has its share of Earth Day e-waste collection events where charitable organizations and other nonprofit groups try to collect obsolete electronics to help the environment. But in reality, much of what is collected on Earth Day and throughout the year does not truly benefit the environment.

This article originally appeared at the Redemtech blog and is reprinted with permission.

Image CC licensed by Flickr user cometstarmoon.