It’s Earth Day, and everyone is thinking about how they can lessen their footprint on the planet. “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” goes the mantra. How do we use fewer natural resources and reduce what goes into the landfill?

Electronic waste, or e-waste, is one of the fastest growing segments of our nation’s waste supply, already comprising 5% of the country’s total trash volume. According to the EPA, 3.01 million tons of e-waste, from cell phones to computers, was generated in 2007, with only 13.6% of the total recycled, and the numbers are rising yearly.

So what is a tech-savvy, yet environmentally conscious consumer to do? Recycling retired and non-working electronic items is the first obvious step. But another great strategy is buying refurbished, and Dyscern.com is proud to part of the solution, offering a full range of name brand, refurbished electronics. As an affiliate for Dyscern.com, you can help spread the word and put refurbished electronics in the hands of consumers who might otherwise buy new.

Refurbished electronics are simply electronic items that cannot be sold as new. Maybe it was an iPod with a loose circuit that was sent back for repair, or perhaps a stereo with packaging that was damaged in transit to a retailer, and although the unit inside was perfectly fine, the store decided to return it for repackaging. The manufacturer cannot sell any item either returned or repaired as new, so the alternative is to sell them as refurbished at a much reduced cost.

Refurbishing electronics saves new raw materials from being used in manufacturing, while keeping units out of the landfill. It also saves consumers money, so green is saved all around!

On this Earth Day, we encourage you to consider the growing e-waste problem, and offer shout outs to all our wonderful affiliates for helping reduce, reuse, and recycle, one iPod at a time!