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Book Review/Recommendation: "High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden Toxics, and Human Health"
(Available in your local library and at www.hightechtrash.com)

Elizabeth Grossman's High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden Toxics, and Human Health from Island Press recently hit the public library shelves. Given the increasing eco-awareness with respect to technology, the book is a timely public release. More than just insight into the end-of-life asset management process, the book details the environmental impacts from semiconductor chip manufacturing to smelting of used computers. Written in terms the layperson can easily understand, the book discusses chemical impacts to both environment and human, the value of recycling, and the global impacts of exported waste. It nicely illustrates the backstory of the technology value-chain.

The book provides many interesting facts and insights not generally discussed such as:
Did you know that there is actual gold in computers? Or that semiconductor clean rooms actually generate more environmental toxic waste? Or that only 10% of U.S. e-waste is actually recycled?

The Island Press/High Tech Trash website also provides basic insightful information about toxicity contained in technology devices, provides information about electronic recycling, and lists resources/articles about recycling.

The book is recommended reading for people who desire a bigger picture view of the electronics industry and environmental impacts and who want to understand e-waste/recycling in more detail.