Plate 1A Monitor	1B Typical Hardware Components	1C CPU Hardware Components

(Source: http://www.brighthub.com/environment/green-computing/articles/11508.aspx ; April 3, 2013)

Used computer hardware or monitors (plate 1A-1C) are a source of some useful elements like copper and lead: but other harmful substances reside in your old hardware that, improperly discarded, poses serious problems for environmental and human health. Some of the worst parts of discarded computer hardware include:

• Mercury in fluorescent tubes
• Cadmium and other potential toxins in laptop batteries and energy sources
• Lead in circuitry

Therefore, we need to have a strong environmental protection laws to protect the ecology and mankind from the effect of the hazards that may destroy the harmony of our healthy living condition. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has increased their activities to regulate the dumping of such old computer parts.  It is up to the buyers to regulate and be vigilant on the dumping of the obsolete computer monitors and other hardware which is bad for the global and local human communities, and safe, effective recycling is the responsible thing to do. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that only about 18% of computer products including CPUs, monitors, notebooks, keyboards, mice, and other peripherals are recycled. The remaining 82% are disposed using various methods including dumping into landfills.
(Read more: http://www.brighthub.com/computing/hardware/articles/49698.aspx?cid=parsely_rec ; April 3, 2013)