Fix E-waste Now

Chris Rodinis
January 4th, 2013

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/01/04/its-easy-enough-to-solve-the-problem-of-e-waste/

If an accomplishment is true and you boast about it, that is not “bragging,” because it is not bragging if it’s true. As modern people we can boast that we are creating more electronic waste than any other people before us. However, is being the most prolific creator of electronic waste something we want to brag about? Probably not.

We can say that we now recycle electronic waste more than ever before and that is a verifiable fact. However, we are still not recycling close to enough. Someday we may reach 100% recycling of all electronics but we are not there yet. In fact we are a long way from it.

Besides being laggards at recycling electronics we are also selling/exporting more and more of it overseas to places like China, India and Indonesia.

This amazing export fact reminds us of “Freakonomics” in that: the most assured method to recycle more electronics is to ship it/sell it/export it to places like China, India and Indonesia.

The EPA Knows What’s Up

Here are more interesting facts from the EPA:

The EPA estimates that less than 10% of mobile phones are getting recycled, and only about 25% of all e-waste (by weight) ends up being collected for recycling.

And because all of these electronic gadgets contain not only precious metals that could be reused (which would cut down on the environmental impact and social injustices associated with many “resource extraction” and refining methods), they also contain substances that are toxic to both humans and wildlife (such as lead, dioxins, mercury, cadmium, plastics, and fire retardants), finding appropriate end-of-life solutions for these products is an important part of the sustainability puzzle.

In spite of environmental regulations, there is money to be made in electronics recycling as long as you scale it into big volumes the size of container loads. These big piles of e-waste are worth cash for the gold and other metals that they contain.

So if recycling is so very profitable, why are recycle rates comparatively low? Why in this case, if it is profitable, do we have to convince people and businesses to recycle? Usually, when there is profit to be made, this is not the case.

One problem lies in the collection. Start with one old gadget and you have 50 cents in value. If you have a quarter million of the same gadget you will have over $100,000 in metal ore.  In scrap, like most things, the value of the lot rises as the quantity or weight rises.

Processing compared to collecting is easy. This is an obvious truth otherwise there would be no e-waste problem.

And like most problems, the solution can be made into reality with a simple fix. Currently in most states, we use a simple “deposit” protocol with cans and bottles…. so why not with electronics?

Pay Deposit, Must Return

Similar to the 25 cents or so that is paid with the purchase of every plastic bottle, how about $1 to $5 (or 10% of the purchase price) to be paid at time of purchase for a gadget? When the end of life comes for that gadget, that would be an excellent cash incentive to stimulate consumers into recycling or repurposing. That way every charitable institution or after school club in the world be knocking on every door asking you to donate your refundable deposit when you recycle with them.

Business models can be created around these types of recycling transactions.

But there is an uproar about this:

The unfortunate truth of e-waste recycling is that an estimated 50-80% of collected electronics end up getting exported to developing nations.

 

This trend of exporting our e-waste means that we’re also exporting all of the toxic effects of the materials to places with extremely lax regulations for health, safety, and the environment.

Well true. However, developing countries need work. They need jobs. They want to earn money whatever the local wage.

The developing countries simply have the lowest wages and businesses gravitate towards that.

Recycling in the US is expensive because of the labor costs involved in running the mechanical processes, the overhead of facilities, and in the cost of operating automated recycling equipment.

In the US, electronic waste recycling companies collect it, sort it, grind it, smelt it, refine it, then get paid for it.

Overseas however, low cost labor wins out as long as it is done safely because recycling by hand yields better products and is less ruinous to the environment.

Low Labor Cost Cures All Evils

When we properly and profitably employ low cost labor overseas, we could then actually make it safer and better.

Obviously, in the overseas markets, the pollution created from all electronic waste recycling  must be monitored and controlled so that there is no harm to the environment or workers.

For example, those neodymium magnets in hard drives when recycled by hand can be used again or re-purposed. The cost for hand disassembly of a hard drive in this case might be only 10 cents.

If we can hand disassemble that hard drive for perhaps 10 cents, then it’s worth doing so because we can then re-purpose components such as magnets. This would be a much better way for environmental sustainability and much better for the economies of developing nations.

That makes good business sense.

In addition, the populations of developing countries want, need and desire to work at whatever wage is competitive in their market, even if it is only $1 per hour. As you may know, $1 per hour is a relatively high pay wage in some poor countries.

As long as the recycling company is regulated to be clean, safe and fiscally responsible, there is a strong likelihood of success at lower labor rates.

If we are really serious about electronics recycling then a real deposit system needs to be setup to ensure that old, used, worn out electronics gets returned.

Secondly, because hand disassembly is better for the environment and creates jobs in poor countries we should ship the electronic waste to developing nations for processing.

For more information on recycling end of life technology and electronic waste, please contact:
www.EwasteWiz.com