E-waste in North America

Electronic waste (E-waste) is material produced from discarded computers, mobile phones, monitors, small appliances, and other electronics and the accessories (such as cables or small transformers) that go along with these products. Increasingly, as the lifespans of these products decrease (think how often a new generation of mobile phone is introduced, adopted, and older models dropped), the tonnage of e-waste is driven higher. North America is one of the biggest global producers of e-waste.

The situation is complicated by the nature of the scrap itself. Looking at a mobile phone for instance, it might be made of plastic, glass, various metals (both ferrous and non-ferrous and precious metals) and other materials in sometimes very small quantities. Add in the presence of battery chemicals in some form, and the complexity of being able to recycle the various components becomes a challenge.

Often, the initial collection and disassembly process must be done laboriously by hand, as you will want to separate the battery assemblies from the units, then various crushing, shredding, and other processes break down the remaining products (metals, glass, plastics) into finer and finer gradients.

This labour intensive approach, and the expense and complexity of extraction, combined with increasing numbers of units, places strain on the ability of e-waste processors in the US to handle future demand. Millions of tonnes of e-waste is produced each year, with only around 20% of that being recycled through a network of variously sized sites. This figure is expected to grow exponentially by 2030, partly due to shorter lifespan products.

Recycling and processing capability, and the regulation and environmental restrictions around them, must keep pace as well, and must advance to ensure that the industry’s ability to handle the demand. E-waste cannot simply be stockpiled infinitely, nor continually shipped (which has often been the case historically) to an overseas jurisdiction. Indeed, it is growing more difficult to export scrap. Moving forward, a solution must be identified to handle the tide of demand more locally. MM Markets (mm-markets.com) is working in the field of emerging recyclers in the US and Europe, and we are available to answer questions on the topic.

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