Five things every Californian should know about eRecycling.

What do Jeff Goldblum and Esai Morales have in common with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger? Other than the fact that they are celebrities, they also all live in the state of California ... and actively support eRecycling.

That's right--eRecycling. And Goldblum and Morales

Do you eRecycle? Do you know what you need to do to join Jeff, Esai and Arnold as supporters of the practice? If you read the five slices of eRecycling information below, you'll be off to a good start. These are the basic facts that every Californian should know regarding eRecycling.

In California, we suffer from a serious glut of electronic waste, or "e-waste." That is to say old electronic products--including TVs and computer monitors--we simply no longer have use for. Each year in our state we replace hundreds of thousands of electronic devices with the newer, faster, latest and greatest versions. What happens to the old ones? More often than not, they gather dust in our homes, garages and businesses because we simply don't know what to do with them.

Do you know that it is actually against the law throw many of these items in the trash? That's because they're banned from California landfills. By recycling these items, we help the environment while preserving some of the valuable contents of the e-waste such as metals, plastics and glass.

California is the first state in the nation to take a proactive role in making it easier to deal with the e-waste issue. The California Electronic Waste Recycling Act sets up a nominal fee ($6 to $10 for each covered product purchased) that will enable the state set up a system making recycling our TVs and computer monitors safer and cheaper in the future.

Thanks to this new eRecycle initiative, more and more Californians are beginning to move what were once heavy dust-collectors out of our garages to eRecycling centers. More importantly, by eRecycling those old computer monitors and TV screens we no longer care about anyway, we are taking a big step toward helping preserve natural resources, protecting our environment and creating new jobs in the state.

You can learn more about this initiative by visiting www.eRecycle.org. This website is designed to be a one-stop shop for information on how to manage unwanted electronics. Through the site, you can find out where recycling opportunities exist near you--and some pretty interesting facts and figures pertaining to e-waste as well.