The 4th Bin

Their solution originally consisted of the pickup method and the desire for all collected equipment to be recycled for reuse. They quickly learned that there is a lot more to the e-waste industry than they anticipated. They hadn't considered the hazardous materials located in items and how those materials need to be collected, handled and disposed of. In addition, they learned that there's a seediness underlying the industry that is a result of the lack of legislation and regulation guiding the proper and ethical disposal of these materials. The result is that, more often than not, the ''bottom line'' dictates what happens to collected materials. Items with little recoverable value are landfilled — or worse — illegally exported to poor countries where they are incinerated causing massive environmental and ecological damage. they decided that they will not be a party to this damage and refuse to let the bottom line compromise their ethics. They believe that there is a large segment of the population (residents and businesses alike) who want to do the right thing and are willing to engage ethical businesses to accomplish this. they're not alone — Since 4th Bin operations began in Feb 2010, they have collected over 2 million pounds of e-waste by going door to door in businesses and homes in NYC.

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