But KIRO 7 Eyewitness News Consumer Reporter David Quinlan reveals the dark side of dumping our electronic waste.

Between the shredding, the crunching and the sorting, tons of scrap and metal passes through a recycling center daily.

"We need to be thinking where does that stuff go," says Craig Lorch.

Lorch, of Seattle's Total Reclaim, Inc. is in the e-waste business.

"E-waste is any electronics that is obsolete or what people don't want anymore," he says.

Sixteen million pounds of this stuff came through his warehouse last year.

"Potentially, there's half a million televisions a year coming out of people's houses," he said.

He recycles it. But many don't.

"It's amazing how invisible the e-waste problem is. It's actually huge," said Sarah Wastervelt, with the Basel Action Network.

Westervelt is with the Basel Action Network. She's a local environmentalist who tracks e-waste and its dangers.

"Our country is generating this waste and we are not doing a good job of controlling our exports," she says.

A recent documentary exposed the dark side of e-waste trade.

Scores of old computers and TVs from the U.S. are exported to developing countries. Some of it's recycled. Some of it's dumped.

"It's going into their water table. It's going to the air and the soil."

Lead, mercury, chromium -- hazardous elements that seep into the ecosystems of China, Africa and India. It's a toxic heap that not only harms the environment, Wastervelt says, but its people too.

"The lead, for example, that comes from our circuit boards from our e-waste is going to factories in China that is then turned into charms for bracelets and necklaces. And then are sent back to the U.S."

But in 2006, Washington state took an important step in curbing the toxic tide. Legislators passed a law providing a free and hopefully safe way to recycle electronic waste. It'll start next January, one month before the digital television switch over.

"We are anticipating that a huge number of old TVs will get dumped at that point and hopefully those old TVs will go into this Washington state program and be managed."

Now some retailers have jumped on board too. Best Buy is offering to take your old TV or computer when you purchase a new one.

"They will haul your old TV away with no charge so that it's recycled."

But critics say the law falls short. There's still no stopping e-waste from being exported, so the more we collect, the bigger the risk that it could end up overseas.

For now, it's up to the consumer.

"The counties here have been very active in promoting good recycling and trying to make it easier for the customer," Lorch says.

Find a globally responsible recylcer instead of trashing your e-waste in the garbage.

Otherwise you also risk the chance that your TV or computer would end up in the land fill.

In King County, however, you do have a choice. They've created the take it back network to help consumers identify responsible recyclers.