Did you know?: Laptops, cell
phones, game systems, iPods and all of our favorite must-have consumer electronics suck up about 15 percent of our entire household power use every day. And according
to reports from the International Energy Agency, that number could triple by 2030 to total
the equivalent of all of the residential power consumed by Japan and the
U.S. today and adding another $200 billion in annual energy bills.
Your impact: Consumers can have a major impact on the market, demanding with their dollar that manufacturers design more energy-efficient electronics. Current technology actually allows for the average gadget to be 40 more energy efficient, but many companies take the cheaper and faster alternative because energy standards for trendy appliances are lacking. According to the IEA report, the total number of people using a personal computer will pass the one billion mark by the end this year, while number of power supplies associated with electronic devices like mobile phones now exceeds 5.5 billion.
How to: One way you can greatly reduce the energy and money consumed by your electronic gadgets is to hook up a power strip in every room and turn it off each time the gadgets--from DVD players to printers to game systems and computers--are not in use. Even while all of those gadgets aren't in use, they're actually consuming something called "phantom loads." And depending on how many appliances you have, cutting back on those phantom loads can reduce your annual energy bills by as much as 10 percent.
You can also do your research before purchasing new gadgets to ensure that they're the least energy-sucking. Web sites like
Energy Savers,
Consumer Reports, and
CNET provide guides to purchasing energy-efficient appliances and electronics.
And, as always, make sure your recycle your electronics. For one thing, the components can be reused, cutting back on waste and carbon emissions. For another, electronics are made up of plastics and toxic metals such as lead, cadmium, and mercury that are getting into the water system and poisoning the food chain.
Recycling electronics is easy--and it is much safer for you and the environment. If you have questions about recycling your electronics, you can find answers at
RethinkRecycling.