Recycle Digital Cameras

You see a new camera you want. It’s got a brand new feature on it that will magically improve your pictures. It’s something you’ve wanted for ages. But what do you do with your old digital camera? Recycle it of course! Recycle it and make cash! Who wouldn’t want to do that?

New digital cameras hit the market very frequently now. It’s a busy and crowded market. For us the consumer it means we have a lot of choice and amazing new features because all the manufacturers are trying to compete and out-do each other. It’s good for us who just want to take better pictures with the best technology available.

Some people may not be bothered about what happens to their old camera, they may keep it forever, untouched in a drawer. But why? If it’s never going to be used again might you as well get rid of it so it or its parts can be reused again.

It is important to reuse or recycle digital cameras as soon as possible because they are still valuable and useful. If you send a camera to be recycled and it is fully working then it can simply be sold on to somewhere where someone wants a camera, sometimes this is in poorer countries. If the camera is faulty then often an identical camera with the same parts can be used to repair it to make it suitable to sell on. If the camera is so faulty that it cannot be fixed then the components and parts can be broken down and recycled individually. If any of the components can’t be recycled then they are disposed of in the most environmentally friendly way as possible.

You can take comfort in knowing that a digital camera taken for recycling is the most kind thing you can do for the environment. This is not only because of the way it is re-used or disposed, but also because it saves new cameras being made from scratch.

Manufacturing a new digital camera from scratch is a very carbon and labour intensive activity, one that would be good to reduce if possible, and of course it is possible! Production begins in mines where the raw materials to make the circuitry, casing, lenses and other parts of the camera are first acquired. These raw earth elements are then heated to very high temperatures to produce refined metals and materials suitable for sensitive camera usage. Mining and processing use a lot of energy, and in the current climate, using this amount of energy unfortunately produces a lot of carbon dioxide which is a contributing factor in climate change.

Next in the manufacturing stage is the making of the individual components. Then after that the assembly of the components. All currently use carbon emitting energy due to the world still being mostly stuck on fossil fuel. But there is hope as governments and electricity companies are investing more in solar, wind and other forms of renewable power. But until the world is 100% powered by the free energy of the sun we need to find a way of making the resources last and looking after ourselves and this little planet.

Recycling helps to minimise our impact on our environment. We become more in harmony with it, the more we work with our environment to protect it. By protecting it, we protect ourselves. The link shows you the best places you can take your used camera.