Ford Employees Go Green, Recycle Yesterday’s Technology into Today’s E-Waste
Ford Motor Company employees brought in
gizmos, gadgets and electronics of all shapes and
sizes during the 9th annual Ford Green IT e-waste
recycling event in Dearborn. About 60 Ford
volunteers supported the effort by unloading
vehicles in the drive-through drop-off and sorting
items for transport. Stacks of printers, TVs,
computers and monitors were then shipped off for
safe disposal instead of being dumped into
landfills. Last year Ford employees hauled in
75,000 pounds of e-waste and this year’s event is
expected to bring in a similar amount.
“This is one of our bigger events,” said Todd Palmer, business director, Motor City Computer,
Ford Green IT’s e-waste recycling partner. “We’ve done more than 300 pallets of equipment
over the years at Ford. That’s hundreds of thousands of pounds. Most of the stuff will be
shredded.”
The Green Days e-waste recycling effort is held in conjunction with Friday’s Better World Ford
Accelerated Action Day that focuses teams of Ford volunteers on community environmental
projects. Ford has a culture of sustainability that is weaved through all areas of the company,
whether it’s work in manufacturing or community service with the Ford Volunteer Corps.
“It’s amazing that people are being green and bringing
all this in,” said Sherry Misewicz, business analyst,
Ford IT. “I brought in three of my old TVs. It gets them
out of the house and it’s very freeing. More space in
the house for more stuff.”
The mix of old and very old electronics included
everything except a time machine, but then reel-to-reel
tape decks, Palm Pilots, rotary phones and cell phones
with backpack batteries did take many of the Ford
employees back to a different time.
“I have my People PC from Ford Motor Company that’s been in the basement taking up space,”
said Gabby Bruno, regional manager, Government Affairs. “I’m glad they’re wiping the hard
drive. And the convenience of just bringing it to work and getting it out of my basement and into
responsible disposal is very much appreciated.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports that
only about 25% of discarded electronics are recycled.
Some valuable metals such as gold, silver, copper or
palladium can be recovered and materials such as glass
and plastic can often be reused. Recycling e-waste keeps
hazardous metals such as lead, mercury and nickel out of
local landfills and away from the water supply.
“I can’t imagine all the material we’re keeping out of
landfills and getting reprocessed,” said Tom Coral,
manufacturing engineer, Powertrain.
To view more photos of the Ford recycling event and other volunteer projects, go to
http://www.volunteer.ford.com/ and click on the photo gallery.