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Environmental organizations are now calling on the United States to follow Europe’s example and immediately implement the global ban on the export of hazardous wastes from the United States to developing countries and likewise to solve the E-waste problem “upstream” by mandating that the electronics industry institute “take-back” recycling programs.

“Recycling e-waste, which includes all electronic waste such as computers, televisions, VCR's, stereos, cell phones, as well as a host of other items, can be somewhat tricky,” said Phil Kuhlenbeck founder of computer recycling services.

He goes on to say, "What we are doing is making it as easy to recycle computers as it is to throw them away, this approach has gotten a lot more people to pay attention and take action."

Recent legislation now holds top executives and IT managers accountable for violating customer protection and privacy rules. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act allows for fines up to $250,000 and 10 years in prison for each violation of patient health information privacy rules. The Gramm-Leach-Billey Act imposes penalties of up to $100,000 per violation for financial institutions that fail to protect customer information.

The need to conform to federal regulations and keep private personal information from falling into the hands of Identity Thieves requires making sure that confidential data is 100% removed from your computer and old documents get shredded.

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act gives the United States Environmental Protection Agency the power to hold computer equipment owners accountable for improper disposal even if they outsource the job.

With competition heating up in the computer recycling and data destruction business companies are being baited with offers of free service.

Recycling can take several forms: refurbishing items for reuse or resale is one way to keep computers out of landfills.  Another way is dismantling the computers, separating the pieces and melting the pieces down using the raw material to make brand new products.