The rapid pace of high-tech innovation yields an unfortunate byproduct; obsolete high-tech junk that all too often ends up in landfills, where it can leach poisonous lead and other heavy metals into our groundwater. One solution for this problem is electronics recycling.
For the most part, electronics recycling is measured in cents and pounds. It’s a scrap industry based on high volumes of metal, plastic, and glass. It takes a lot of raw material to make it economically feasible to recycle. E-Tech Recycling, Inc. keeps electronic waste out of landfills using other strategies in addition to recycling.
If the electronics are relatively new, they probably still have a value on the open market. Good examples include recent vintage monitors or an Intel® Pentium® 4 processor-based computer.
When it comes to keeping electronic waste out of the local landfill, E-Tech employs a four-step strategy:
- Reuse. Can another company use the electronics as is? Can those old computers be put to use in a school, non-profit, small business or elsewhere?
- Redeploy. Can parts be used in some other device? Can the motherboard from an oscilloscope be used in a sound mixing board? Or in a robotics project?
- Remarket. Can the working parts be reassembled into a different computer or device? Can the old sound cards be put into working, older model computers?
- Recycle. Process the materials back to a raw state to be resold as a commodity so that the materials can be used to manufacture something else.
E-Tech Recyclers triage items that arrive at their warehouses according to the opportunity for reuse or recycling. Depending on market conditions, there may be a higher demand for the parts than the original unit.
Why is the triage effort important? Because recycling requires additional natural resources to re-process the raw materials, and should therefore be used when a product is truly at its end of life. The goal with any reduce, reuse, recycle program is to save our planet!
E-Tech Recycling is just one of the many electronic recyclers out there, taking in e-waste from various entities. What sets them apart is their approach to reuse, redeploy, remarket and recycle. E-Tech, though a wide network of vendors and clients, is able to maintain and develop the necessary markets for the most effective and efficient e-waste reuse stream, fulfilling the company’s promise to never use landfills for the disposal of electronics. For more information, visit E-Tech Recycling.