Teacher Amy Huang, far left, and Bob Chandra, who founded a non-profit organization to fight environmental waste, observe Montclaire students as they research e-waste.

Montclaire Elementary School students wrote a proposal to computer makers Apple, Dell and Hewlett-Packard in May, recommending that they make their products easier to recycle by removing toxic components like PVC plastic, providing bonuses - such as upgrades - for recycling, and supporting local efforts to recycle computers.

Their teacher, Amy Huang, taught the fourth- and fifth-graders about the environmental harm caused by computer parts that end up in landfills. She assigned students the task of researching electronic waste and what computer makers are doing to recycle computers.

Bob Chandra, founder of Code-Green, a Bay Area environmental non-profit organization, talked to the students in the classroom about the different aspects of electronic waste - from waste caused by individuals to business e-waste - and the responsibilities of computer makers. Code-Green’s purpose is to build awareness of electronic waste and to study the effects of e-waste on the Bay Area.

Students in science, schools, business, environmental and proposal study groups used the school’s computer lab to conduct Internet research.

“They were pulling down press releases, examining scientific data on the toxic components and percentages in computers and creating Excel spreadsheets to report their data,” Chandra said. “Their knowledge of electronic waste goes beyond that of many adults.”

For more about Code-Green, visit www.code-green.org.