E-waste represents just 2% of America’s landfill trash, but 70% of our overall toxic waste, and up to 50 million metric tons of e-waste are disposed of yearly worldwide. Yet only 12.5% of today’s electronic waste currently gets recycled.
Even more interesting are the rare minerals and materials making up a significant portion of that tonnage: Americans waste over $60 million in gold and silver every year just from cell phone waste alone! Read on to find out who’s making big moves in electronics recycling, and just how they’re doing it.
Consumer Electronics
It’s estimated that a million cell phones, if recycled, would yield over 35,000 pounds of copper, almost 800 pounds of silver, and 75 pounds of gold. As technology becomes more and more a part of our everyday activities, we regularly buy and consume the latest generation of home and office gadgets, phones, and laptops. Reusing and refurbishing recovered e-waste to create new electronics lowers manufacturing and consumer costs, making those devices more accessible and affordable, which benefits everyone. Electronics recycling and recovery make for a more sustainable economy and a much safer environment.
Recycling Helps Manufacturers
As production rates and demand for electronics continually increase, so does the threat and accumulation of e-waste. Thanks to the rare materials within that waste, electronics manufacturers can reclaim and reuse them for new products. You deserve a partner who will steward your old electronics back into the creative life cycle by buying your used tech at a great price. It’s a win/win!
Electronics Repair
Repair, reuse, refurbish. Here we have an efficient way to keep e-waste from accumulating by keeping it in play. Using electronics that admittedly aren’t new, but have been kept in good repair, is a trend that could reverse the current e-waste crisis. The only problem is that these shops cannot usually do necessary things like spotting illegally obtained or shipped merchandise. You deserve a partner who can buy your used electronics, and repair or dispose of them properly.
E-Waste Recycling Benefits For Tech Industry
The tech sector has grown rapidly over the past few decades, which generates a lot of the e-waste problems we see today. But this can change as they become less reliant on new parts and machinery and more dependent on electronic waste for common needs like rare earth minerals and precious metals. Properly harvested, these are all environmentally friendly alternatives to traditional mining, which depletes natural resources and is toxic to the environment we share.
Urban Mining
The urban mining trend is disrupting the whole electronic life cycle by creating an industry of the sector itself: mining old electronics and construction sites for useful materials. Recovering discarded electronics and reclaiming materials from construction sites make for great reductions in both cost and energy. Join us in creating a more sustainable and environmentally-friendly method for getting these materials to the manufacturers that need them.
Give Your Electronics a Second Chance With RetirePC
When you collect and sell your old electronics and technology to RetirePC, you’re helping reduce the e-waste damaging our environment. Companies who partner with us are dedicated to taking the lead in corporate sustainability and extending their products’ life cycles, not to mention safeguarding their data and their brand. Please reach out today to see what we can do for you.