The eWaste drive, organized by West High’s Environmental Club, was held from 10AM to 3PM on February 19^th, 2011.  Nothing could stop Torrance resident from coming to the event, and disposing old electronic waste- which has to be properly disposed of.

   Usually one has to pay in order to dispose of their unwanted electric goods. As a result, many choose to throw away electric goods.   For example batteries; leading causes of pollution in the United States, contain heavy metals such as mercury, lead, cadmium, and nickel, which can contaminate the environment when they are improperly disposed of. They pollute lakes, seep through landfills and pollute the soil, contain extremely corrosive acids. The average car battery contains 18 pounds of lead and one pound of sulfuric acid. Like Jenna Morgan (11), “It’s easy to destroy our planet, but it is difficult to repair.”

   Organizations like treepeople, a nonprofit organization, help high schools plan events such as the eWaste drive. Televisions, monitors, radios, PCs, flat screens, vacuums, car batteries, and telephones are just some of the few various items collected that day. Tassia Paschoal (12), president of Environmental Club, comments, “[we can] get our filter system now. That was an amazing fundraiser, way beyond my expectations.”  Environmental club collects the money gained for each pound that was ‘trashed’ and the money is being used to save up for a water filter for students to fill up their aluminum water bottles.

 The South Bay community’s willingness was astonishing, as not even the rain could stop them from coming – and Environmental Club for actually working in the rain… June Tong (12) explains, “[over] 26,751 pounds of waste isn’t cramming up our landfills,” meaning that the eWaste drive was huge success.