E-WASTE
REVOLUTION
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MISSION
The E-Waste Revolution was inspired by my love for the ocean and ocean wildlife. If you aren't familiar with my projects, I am a leader who is organized, determined, and dedicated to improving our oceans no matter what! As a Girl Scout, I believe we all can help improve this planet for the better and I have really enjoyed creating this project as part of my Girl Scout Silver Award. It's been a 1.5 year journey diving into the topic.
Since learning about electronic waste, I had to do something about it! My goals with this project are to teach my community how to work together to keep our planet and oceans clean by collecting, properly recycling, and disposing of E-Waste (electronic waste).
The United States generated 6.92 million tons of E-Waste, about 46 pounds per person, in 2019! We recycled only 15% of that material! For every million cell phones we recycle, we can save thousands of pounds of heavy metals, toxic components, and precious minerals from landfills, which eventually all lead to polluting our soil, groundwater, waterways, and oceans. This applies to ALL TYPES of electronics including laptops, ipads, cables, batteries, and more!
I am worried about our worldwide water supply and what will happen to it if we keep going at this pace. We only have a small percentage of accessible clean water for all of us to use here on Earth, and we are polluting it fast.
We want to raise awareness about how E-Waste must be properly disposed of so we can start tackling this issue.
How am I going to do this?
1. Create Annual/ Bi-annual Collection Events
The Back to School and Holiday Season are the biggest times for buying new electronics (and throwing out old ones). This is the perfect time to help people collect their e-waste and recycle it for them! How I plan to do this is first by working with my school, with The Coastal Stewards, the City of Boca Raton Sustainability Manger, and through the greater Boca Raton Area stores that collect e-waste here in Florida.
Schools are overwhelmed with old and broken electronic equipment that has been used and abused for years that tend to go directly to the trash/landfill. We are creating an annual Back To School EWaste Collection Event that allows our school and the student body at large to sustainably dispose of their equipment. Hopefully, we can use this model with all youth groups and schools across the country including Girl Scout troops, Boy Scout troops, and their schools across the globe!
My first collection event was October 15th National E-Waste Day in 2022:
1. Announced it to my entire elementary, middle, and high school
2. Announced it to my Girl Scout Troop
3. Did an E-Waste Collection event at Gumbo Limbo in Boca Raton from for E-Waste Day. We collected over 1000 lbs of E-Waste! People kept bringing more in the weeks afterwards, it was amazing!!
4. Drafted a City Proclamation - The mayor proclaimed and shared it with the City of Boca Raton so tons of people came!
In the greater Boca Raton area, we are working on creating several events open to the general public at their local electronic retail stores and nature centers to allow them opportunities to come and learn more about e-waste and create collection sites for them to drop off their gear a few times a year. If you want to partner with us, please reach out to me.
In 2022, after the success of the first E-Waste Drive, Gumbo Limbo Coastal Stewards, the non-profit, invited me to create a Youth Council. With them, I hosted my next event.
In August 2023, I held my 2nd E-Waste Collection drive as a Back-to-School event at the Delray Beach Children's Garden, and it was a huge success!
- CBS 12 shares Anya & the E-Waste Drive
- Anya interview with UM journalism student
My next goal: have more cities proclaim October 14th E-Waste Day to bring more awareness to this issue.
Now, in 2024 I am reaching out again to mayors and county mayors to proclaim E-Waste Day and planning an E-Waste collection event in October at the new Coastal Stewards Headquarters.
Video about all the 2023 E-Waste Revolution Efforts
2. Help people learn to recycle e-waste at home
The goal here is to teach people what we can do at home to protect our environment and our health by simply making an at-home e-waste bin! This way, you have a place where all of your spent gear rests until the next collection event is created or where you can drop items off to recycle or donate yourself. I have created a sticker with directions on acceptable items that can generally be recycled in your area.
I would love to see a pic of your E-Waste Bin in your home! My goal is to have every home in America and one day around the world have an
E-Waste bin! Take a pic and tag us on Instagram @ewasterevolution
Main Sticker
Educational Sticker or Sign
3. Education & Awareness
Knowledge is power, right? The more we know, the more solutions we can come up with to help create a cleaner safer, future for all. This will also teach the community about the dangers of E-waste if it is not properly disposed of and how that impacts us all.
This project strives to educate and inspire all youth and our communities to spark that fire to make real change. We have collected a bunch of resources for you to check out on this site to learn as much as you can so you can be part of the solution!
I want to work with girl scout and boy scout troops all over the US to help bring this project into every troop.
Here's a packet I made that outlines how every single troop can do an E-Waste Collection Drive annually or bi-annually and earn a badge for it. Please reach out to me with pics and the weight of your E-Waste Drive so we can track the total collected by all troops! And we would love to give you a shout out for your work!
In school in 2022-2023 I completed my science project on E-Waste, won 2nd place regionally for the project, and just won a national science award for it. My Goal is to highlight through science how bad e-waste is for our ocean wildlife.
I also published a book on E-Waste to educate the youth on how we can play an important role. Here's a link to my other books, events, and ways I help educate the community: www.PenniesForPenguins.com.
4. Create change with Big Corporations.
We would like big corporations to take responsibility for their products and how they impact our environment. To do so, we are asking them to model off of exceptionally sustainable tech companies that can effectively and sustainably recycle their products making it simple and realistic for the consumer.
In my research I found amazing videos about how companies are working to recycle the electronics they create. Here are some inspiring videos.
IMAGE: Meet Daisy, an Apple robot who can disassemble 200 iPhones an hour for recycling, Photo from Apple
This project will assure that the water and land in my community will be cleaner and that electronic waste has a safer and more useful place to go.
I want to make sure that everyone knows how to dispose of their electronics in a safe, easy, organized manner. I hope that this project will kick off a national movement to make everyone aware of recycling electronics safely.