Every day, over 100,000 computers are trashed in the United States. It’s an astounding number, and will likely keep growing. According to a report released last December by the United Nations University and the International Telecommunication Union, electronic waste is the fastest growing part of the domestic waste stream in the world. According to the report, most of this e-waste isn’t recycled, but is simply thrown away, wasting billions of dollars in recoverable materials.In an effort to raise awareness about this mounting e-waste problem, the artist Benjamin Von Wong decided to put some e-waste to good use by making sculptures out of old electronics.The material for these sculptures were sourced from Dell, which runs the largest global recycling program in the world and freely recycles e-waste in over 80 countries. The company harvests valuable components—such as gold or plastics—from these recycled electronics and uses them to manufacture more electronics.Von Wong was given 4,100 pounds of e-waste for his sculptures, the average amount of electronic waste generated by an American in their lifetime according to last year’s e-waste report.Clara Cloutier modeled as a cyborg for the sculptures. Image: Benjamin Von WongTo learn more about the project or see more photos of the sculptures, visit Von Wong’s website.
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The sculptures were created in a warehouse in Dallas by volunteers over the course of 10 days and were only kept up for a single day before being returned to Dell for recycling.