So many of us watched the gold medals being passed to the champions at the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. Bronze, silver, and gold medallions were worn by world class athletes. We doubt, however, that you were wondering how exactly those medals came to be. Yes, they’re gold medals, but would you believe us if we told you that a percentage of that gold was actually made from recovered precious metals from e-waste? Well, believe it because it is true.

E-waste, if you were wondering, is the newly devised term for broken electronic devices. This waste contains dangerous substances such as lead, beryllium, and cadmium and is also hazardous to the environment during disposal due to incinerator ashes and heavy metals in landfills.

While it may be a small percentage, around 1.52 percent of the gold worn around these champions’ necks was recovered from e-waste. This is a perfect example of exactly how disused circuit boards from electronic devices can be recycled and reused.

At approximately forty million tons of e-waste being produced each year, the e-waste situation is becoming increasingly problematic and is predicted to become much worse in the next decade.

To add insult to injury, the e-waste that is currently produced is not always handled correctly. This often creates hazardous and toxic environments for workers and the local environment. Sounds like a mess? It is.

There is some good news, as we can see in our shiny Olympic Medals. The good news being: new ways of recycling this e-waste and reusing it are being experimented with and discovered. New recycling and disposal devices are being manufactured and planned by engineers across the globe.

There is however, quite the glimmer of hope provided by the shiny gold medals we all saw in Vancouver. The proof is in the pudding as they say, and the medals are surely showing everyone that e-waste can and will be recycled more effectively.

It isn’t a mystery that devices that are left plugged in to outlets often times continue to pull electricity, even when not in use. Toasters, hair blow dryers, and yes, even cell phone chargers all have the tendency to continue to draw electricity, often referred to as “vampires” in electronic slang.

AT&T has decided to attempt to overcome this energy efficiency issue by creating quite the charger. The charger is called the “ZERO Charger”. This will be the first ever created zero draw charger to hit the market. Its release is scheduled for May and will be available to all AT&T customers. Now, I know what you’re thinking. How much electricity can a plugged in cell phone charger possibly waste? How much of a difference can this possibly make? The answer: It can make a big difference, and trust us, it wastes a whole lot of electricity. A plugged in cell phone charger, over a year time period, can waste massive amounts of electricity that works towards no purpose. The electricity is just simply, wasted.

Lucky for you, and us, the charger will not cost a pretty penny. As a matter of a fact, the charger is exactly the same as previously designed models which waste energy. The design is also interchangeable which will save the customer money. Sounds like a good deal to us.

Considering the size of AT&T’S client base, this new charger, being offered at the same price to the same enormous amount of customers could in fact make a significant difference. While it may seem small it is in fact quite the leap for a company of this stature to make design decisions geared towards the environment which can be so easily accessed by the average joe with a cell phone.

We’ll be waiting in line for our new charger in May and hope to see you there!

Image via AT&T