We should be doing far more in recycling e-waste!
The US needs to do far more in recycling e-waste.
According to the US EPA
"There was 423,000 tons of computers that were disposed of in 2010. Of that, 255,000 tons were trashed, ended up in landfills or were disposed of in some other way. Only 168,000 tons were recycled, that’s only a mere 40%."
"There was 19,500 tons of mobile devices that were disposed of in 2010. Of that, 17,200 tons were trashed, ended up in landfills or were disposed of in some other way. Only 2,240 tons were recycled, that’s only a mere 11%."
This amounts to approximately 142,000 computers and over 416,000 mobile devices EVERY DAY!!
These are only figures for computers and mobile devices, there are far more electronics disposed of every year.
There is also a very ugly side to some of the recycled electronics. The EPA reports that 40% of computers are recycled, the number is actually more like 17% as a good percentage is shipped overseas as second hand electronics, so that they can legally be shipped. But the true intent in shipping second hand electronics is not for them to be sold, and re-used but instead to be processed for their precious metals.
This causes all kinds of environmental and health issues in the countries e-waste is shipped to.
The UN recognizes this as being a very serious problem.
“The mountain of used electrical and electronic devices, known as "e-waste," is expected to grow from 48.9 million metric tons worldwide in 2012 to 65.4 million metric tons in 2017; the weight equivalent of 200 Empire State Buildings or 11 Great Pyramids of Giza, the study says.”
“The United States topped the list of the 184 countries analyzed for the total volume of e-waste generated each year, at 9.4 million tons in 2012; followed by China, with 7.2 million tons. By comparison, the U.S. Environment Protection Agency reported the U.S. generated 1.9 million to 2.2 million tons of e-waste in 2005.”
“The United States might have had such a higher volume, the report says, because there have been more electronic products put on the market in the past and therefore more are now ready to be retired. In 2012, for example, the United States put about 10 million tons of electrical and electronic equipment on the market, compared with about 1 million tons in Canada.”
https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/12/16/un-seeks-to-solve-growing-global-e-waste-problem
These are very rough numbers, depending upon the quality and year the electronics were made, but still very close to actual yields, please consider the following.
There are approximately 10 troy ounces of gold (or about three-fifths of a pound) per ton of smartphones. Ten thousand phones weigh one ton.
Two hundred laptops would yield approximately five troy ounces of gold.
A PC circuit board, where the gold is, weighs about a pound. If you had a ton of those boards, you should have 5 troy ounces of gold.
As well:
E-waste represents 2% of America's trash in landfills, but it equals 70% of overall toxic waste.
A large number of what is labeled as "e-waste" is actually not waste at all, but rather whole electronic equipment or parts that are readily marketable for reuse or can be recycled for materials recovery.
Only 12.5% of e-waste is currently recycled.
For every 1 million cell phones that are recycled, 35,274 lbs of copper, 772 lbs of silver, 75 lbs of gold, and 33 lbs of palladium can be recovered.
Recycling 1 million laptops saves the energy equivalent to the electricity used by 3,657 U.S. homes in a year.
E-waste is still the fastest growing municipal waste stream in America, according to the EPA.
Electronic items that are considered to be hazardous include, but are not limited to: Televisions and computer monitors that contain cathode ray tubes, LCD desktop monitors, LCD televisions, Plasma televisions, Portable DVD players with LCD screens.
There are very profitable, and responsible ways that e-waste can be processed to recover the values in minerals and metals. Currently, in the US, most of this is shipped to other countries for processing. Why, when we could be recovering these values right here in the United States. Why are we sending our waste for others to reclaim the values and rewards for doing so?
Considering the environmental damage done by traditional mining where it takes several tons to generate just one ounce of gold we can see how urban mining e-waste is not only the right thing to do, but how it also might be far more profitable to do so than to operate a mining effort. We still need to mine resources in order to be able to supply the demand for these minerals and metals, however disposing of material that is far more profitable to extract precious metals and minerals from makes absolutely no sense at all.
For the last 6 years, I have been extensively researching how this might be done legally, and responsibly in the United States. I own and operate a small precious metals refinery in California where much of the e-waste generated in the United States comes from. Although California laws are very strict in regards to environmental issues, recycling e-waste can still be done responsibly and with a very high percentage of profit.
It has long been my intent to grow my business so that I could one day invest in the equipment and processes needed to responsibly and efficiently accomplish e-waste recycling in California. I am now entertaining the idea of seeking investors to accomplish this as the costs involved in starting such an effort are very expensive and I do not see being able to generate this type of capital myself considering what a tough business operating a small scale refining operation actually is. If there are any interested potential investors who are interested in urban mining, and reclaiming values in e-waste, to invest in a state of the art facility that would rival the very best operations in the world today, please contact me. I not only deeply desire to do this because of the success it would mean, but also because it is the right and responsible thing to do. There is no excuse for one of the most advanced societies in the world to not be able to recycle and reclaim values in our e-waste ourselves.
If you feel as I do, that we as a country, as a civilized, responsible and advanced society should be doing far more in responsibly processing e-waste, please, like and share this post or any other information you might come across of value in regards to this subject. Perhaps if more people understood the problems, and the profits that might be made more would be done in this effort than what is currently being done today.
Thank you for reading
Scott Brown
Noble MetalWorks
Founder at Revolution Technologies
1 年Recent test with our processor might be helpful in the ewaste space. We fed various ewaste (before) through our machine and in one pass produced very fine particle sizes. 45 micron plus some larger plastic. Would this be useful?
Changing
8 年Gold and other precious metals are hidden there somewhere, go get them!
Owner-CEO at Noble MetalWorks
8 年The problem is that developed nations are sending their e-scrap to underdeveloped nations, illegally, as second hand electronics that are actually intended to be processed illegally. The problem is not only on the pollution this causes to their environment, but also in the toxic gases it generates. I read somewhere that the life expectancy of some of the people who process material in the open this way is as little as five years. Considering the acids used, in open 55 gallon plastic barrels produces NOx gas, and that the people processing are freely breathing these gas fumes, it makes alarming sense. If we as developed nations were responsibly processing this material ourselves it would actually save many lives in those places it is being processed illegally and incorrectly.
Anglo American Resources Trading (China) Co., Ltd. - VP, Precious Metals China
8 年Sadly to see the pictures which maybe from emerging markets rather than States. Has to do it in green way.
CEO at Energy Venture
8 年Gold extraction from Electronic boards at Ghana landfills.Scott B.