Now's a good time to finally junk that Blueberry iMac you never quite got around to turning into an aquarium. For Earth Day, cities from New York to Lee's Summit, Missouri are holding recycling events for e-waste - unusable or unwanted computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices and appliances. Electronics retailer Best Buy, which has held similar events around the country since 2001, will hold three this weekend at a few California and Wisconsin locations.

But those old Betamaxes and StarTacs don't always meet very environmentally happy endings.

A report released by Greenpeace International last summer details how obsolete electronics turned in for recycling in the U.S. are often illegally shipped to China and India, where they're causing "alarmingly high levels of contamination in rivers, groundwater, and indoor dusts by toxic heavy metals and organic compounds including lead, cadmium, PCBs, PBDE (a common flame retardant), antimony, and mercury."

According to "Exporting Harm: The High-Tech Trashing of Asia," a 2002 report from the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition and the Basel Action Network, 50 to 80 percent of electronics waste collected for recycling in the U.S. is sent to China, India, Pakistan or other developing countries, where it is processed for recycling in largely unregulated and environmentally damaging conditions.

And the Computer TakeBack Campaign has details of a new report revealing that "up to 75% of the computers and electronics shipped to Africa supposedly for re-use is actually junk, unrepairable and unsalable. Much of the useless equipment ends up being dumped and burned in open air dumps and ditches, posing health threats to local residents and workers."

On a more positive note, items from the New York event will be demanufactured and recycled in New Jersey by Supreme Recycling, while those in Lee's Summit will head to a facility in Florida.

More good news: Best Buy works with the Consumer Electronics Retailers Coalition and others to push for producer takeback legislation seeking to make manufacturers, importers and retailers more accountable for the lifecycle of their products - most recently (and successfully) in Washington State.

You can help reduce the e-waste overload by checking Computer TakeBack's state-by-state list of responsible recyclers, reading its excellent primer on electronics recycling, and sending a letter to the EPA in support of banning overseas e-waste dumping.

Photo credit: Greenpeace International