Taking out the techtrash: this holiday season, use these ways to "e-cycle" your old electronics.(ECO MATTERS)

Electronics make for lousy trash. An average desktop computer holds 14 pounds of plastic, 4 pounds of lead, 8 pounds of aluminum and smaller amounts of arsenic, mercury and beryllium (a hard, grayish metal naturally found in mineral rocks, coal, soil, and volcanic dust). Approximately 55 million computers will be retired this year alone, making up the majority of the 3 million tons of e-waste that annually ends up in landfills.

But computers aren't the only gadgets piling up. With cellular companies constantly adding new features, 130 million mobile phones are discarded in the United States each year. With more television watchers switching to flat screens, millions of TVs are headed for the scrap pile as well. That adds up to an enormous heap of toxic e-waste, which the Environmental Protection Agency says now accounts for as much as 40 percent of the lead in US landfills.

Yet, of all the trash Americans churn out, electronics are the least likely to be recycled. People simply don't know where to take their old computers, cell phones or TVs. In fact, 56 percent of American households have this stuff lying around, according to an eBay survey. Eventually, many electronics land at the local dump, where the toxic materials inside leak out. And, with an escalating mountain of e-waste threatening to overwhelm America's trash heaps, regulators and manufacturers are struggling to find solutions to the nation's newest environmental dilemma.

The ultimate goal: to make recycling computers as easy as dragging them to the curb. But for now, it's not that hard to keep your mercury-leaking electronic gadgets out of the landfill. Here's how.

sell your stuff

Get a little dough for your doodads by offering them on popular auction websites such as eBay.com and half.com. Search for other websites or bulletin boards that cater to parts-hunters (craigslist.com posts listings for more than 100 cities nationwide). If you don't want the hassle of advertising your wares, take your gadgets to a middleman such as AuctionDrop.com, which allows you to drop off items at any UPS outlet. AuctionDrop will then sell your things on eBay for a small fee.

return recyclables