Thousands of Iowans unwrapped new televisions, cell phones, laptops, and other high-tech gadgets as Christmas gifts. Iowa DNR Senior Environmental Specialist Susan Johnson says it’s believed U.S. consumers who fail to recycle e-waste, annually, send over two-million tons of computers, TVs, cell phones, printers, scanners, and other such items to landfills.

Most electronic products contain toxic materials such as lead, cadium (kad’-ee-um), arsenic and mercury. If they end up in landfills, those toxins will contaminate groundwater.