In 50 Years, Will E-Waste Recyclers have Done Enough?

This, is my daughter, she's ten years old. When she was just four, I promised her I would do everything in my power to help fix the world we live in. It wasn't something I'd just picked up because of her, but it was something I'd become more determined about, for her sake.

Realistically speaking, I'm nearing 50, I know I only have maybe 20 years left, or maybe I'll go tomorrow, who knows. The point is, I don't see humanity moving too quickly to solve too many of our earths problems. I opened Pfane Environmental Association to invest my time and money to focus on helping tackle one of the most pressing issues plaguing the future of our planet, climate change. Specifically, climate change caused by an industry that I thought was "green."

When I started recycling electronics, in 2016, through Pfane Scientific SRL. I began by researching the competition, the "big guys", the legendary companies who'd been around for decades. I started seeing a pattern. As green as everyone said they were, very few companies were actually doing what they'd said they were doing. That didn't apply to everyone, believe me, there are so many amazing ewaste recycling companies making a difference in the world and I'm really singling out a few massive entities when I speak here.

You see, there's a pretty set pattern for electronic recyclers. Those who start out, use a blanket term of "recycler" to promptly place themselves on the almighty environmentalist pedestal. Unfortunately, some get stuck on the fact that they get rid of someone's unwanted stuff and keep it from hitting landfill, and they call just doing that "GREEN." After seeing what happens to electronics after they're collected, I can tell you, that if you knew what actually happens to these items, you'd probably be a little disappointed in a lot of the industry.

I'm not talking about the 10% of "recyclers" that have been caught shipping devices to Ghana, NO, there's something worse happening. No one wants to talk about, or maybe no one even thinks about the same things I do. Maybe, reading this will be the first time someone in the idustry was told about this problem, or maybe most people feel powerless to change something that haunts our industry at large.

So for the last 4 years, through my non profit organization and through my recycling company in Romania, Pfane Scientific, myself and an incredible team of dedicated and passionate individuals, went after a dream. To be "Cleaner, Smarter and Circular." I know, its sounds cliché, a Recycling company saying they are clean, smart and circular. But it's actually a difficult thing to claim, and even more difficult to back up.

At first our plan (and our practice) was to just make something from everything we recycled. So, we made Copper (mixed metal) granules from Circuitry and from the left overs, we made bricks.

Yay! we are circular...

Except, we weren't making too much of a difference in the world. So, what next??

Ok, we expand! Which we have and we are now working on setting up 10 new locations across North America. but there was still so much missing from the equation. So 2 years ago we decided to become Carbon Negative and adhere to a new set of Standards for the entire Pfane Organization, globally.

We put our minds to the question; "How can we help an entire industry (not just us), that is so fragmented at every level. become carbon negative?" We ran vast arrays of numbers and found, that if we moved all e-waste refining in house and partnered with an onsite or close by dismantler, we would actually begin saving CO2 but ONLY if we remain fully circular.

The numbers didn't work without actually making products from every single element in the e-waste. Which, we are doing already.

But... We were barely #CO2 negative, and even though that was an amazing thing to say, the industry at large, which is way bigger than us, would still go on with "business as usual."

To me, "#business as usual" was a failure. It was killing me that nothing was changing. I started to become cynical about the entire electronics recycling industry. It made me laugh when CEOs of massive polluting refineries would boast about being Carbon Neutral, thanks to having purchased carbon credits from someone else who actually put in the work to eliminate their carbon footprint. That's just not the right way for a GREEN industry to become carbon negative in my opinion.

This haunted me for months. Until, I had, what I thought was, an incredible idea. Something that could seriously change the industry for the better. You see, what happens now is; People, businesses and manufacturers all have #electronic waste. Even the manufacturers of electronics and semiconductors have electronic waste. All of which, currently, goes from the waste producer (people, businesses and industry) to a collector (we call these guys dismantlers) They sort, dismantle and sell your scrap to other people. Most of the time they have to sell to traders, who also label themselves as recyclers, but literally just collect from smaller dismantlers to sell to the highest bidder.

The companies buying from "Traders" also call themselves #recyclers . These "recyclers" have shredding machinery. The "shredders" who we call, "pre-processors," generally sort plastics from metals and again, they sell them to OTHER "recyclers," who refine these things into new raw materials. The refiners, then capitalize on selling those raw materials to industry. Then finally, manufacturers, make stuff and ship it to stores and it gets back to people who will later recycle that thing, whatever it is, also.

Sounds like a long process, and it is. It involves thousands of miles of travelling, between everyone involved to complete this circle. Even if refining is done directly after the collector the most common practice for refining is, burning off plastics to collect metals for their value.

Anyone who looks into gasification or, worse yet, chemical digestion of metals, will find how harsh the metal refining industry is on our Earth. Without even taking all the shipping into account, the metal melting industry makes up 7% of the worlds Carbon problem.

So, Why don't we just get rid of that? Why couldn't an #ewaste recycler actually become an "e-waste recycler?" If we all become true recyclers, well then, we don't need a refiner do we?

Except it's not that easy.

Being a refiner means you need to melt things or handle dangerous chemicals. For that you need special permits and specially trained people. So, it's a non starter, right?

No... Not Correct.

We've worked on this problem for two years. My team and I've found a way to refine #metals without harsh chemicals... but couldn't, find a technology that could refine ANYTHING without melting it or using chemical digestion. These methods create massive amounts of deadly toxic fumes, and even though it was planned to have onsite melting in our facilities, we had really believed there was no other option.

Then suddenly, last week...

While I was designing something on my 3D printer, it came to me. Recyclers could just electro refine the granules we make, straight into products, by growing them in electrolytic cells. So after a few tests, I wrote and submitted an application for a provisional, utility patent, on a technology, that can finally achieve what I'd promised my daughter.

I hope, all those reading this, in the e-waste recycling industry, who promised their kids they would change the world, will take this opportunity right now. We must change our businesses. We need to stop relying on the refiner to dictate our material values, stop shipping around the globe, stop having our waste burned at some refinery, just to make some money. We all need to take the next step.

Do, what we swore we would do when we started e-waste recycling. Let's make a difference in this industry and on this planet. Maybe, just maybe, when our kids are our age, they will look back with pride rather than wondering why we didn't do something when we had the opportunity.

Just commit to a small pilot, let Pfane show you, how you can not only nearly 3x your revenues, but can become Co2 negative and nearly 100% sustainable. To the point where, you can potentially be off grid with your entire operation (if you are that ambitious). But, lets start. We've all made the same promise. Let's keep it.

Check out the link below for a revolutionary new refining technology. Made for the e-waste recycling and scrap metal industries. and if you'd like, call me. I'm happy to speak directly with you on the topic.

https://www.pfane.org/EcoCell.html