E-waste The Worlds Most Complex Commodity.

There is a common misconception these days that starting an e-waste business will bring you riches beyond your wildest dreams. Many an entrepreneur will read a FORBES fluff piece or two and incorrectly think that a pile of discarded computers will bury them in gold.

Too many people believe the extraordinary statistics being touted about the amount of precious metals in e-waste and electronics. I've even read some estimates that there are around 1kg of gold inside a ton of cell phones.

I have to say that over the last 4 years of Pfane diligently separating, photographing, processing and analyzing thousands upon thousands of pieces of e-waste. We're probably the most studied and qualified in the industry to say; "those figures are immensely exaggerated." Even if you process 1 full ton of Nokia's you will not see that type of yield.

That being said. Depending on the mix of phones you are recycling, you may see close to 700 grams on average, after getting rid of the externals, plastics and bits of metal that contaminate the circuitry. But that's not a ton of cell phones, that's a ton of cell phone motherboards. Still sounds promising though, doesn't it? Well, hold on a second. Phones have been changing a great deal since 2013. A new phone motherboard uses newer, inexpensive gold alloys, The chip-sets use smaller, thinner, gold bond wire. As they say. "They don't make 'em like they used to." So finding more than an ounce of gold in a ton of newer smartphone motherboards is a rarity in itself, as rare as collecting one ton of Nokia's.

"So what!," you say. "That's nothing to worry about?" Well, if you purchase, process or sell e-waste, you better pretend you care. Cell phone motherboards are one of the 4 most over-priced e-wastes on the market. Most times, when purchasing cell phone motherboards, an e-waste company is buying a few tons at most. These phones are mixed with more accurately priced waste. The other waste will usually cover the loss from the bad purchase. However, in my opinion, the loss shouldn't exist in the first place.

In a blind study conducted by Pfane Environmental Association, done across twelve of the world's top e-waste recyclers. Eleven recyclers quoted photos of cellphone boards from 1 euro to 8 euro per kilo too high. A staggering 50% of the recyclers were pricing them above the break-even price, meaning 50% of the worlds largest recyclers are losing money on cell phone boards.

It gets worse. In our most recent tests, we sent out photos of common, mixed telecom boards, and the results were absolutely shocking. 2 of 5 classes of boards were so far under-priced that the collector would have lost their shirt taking that low an offer, and 2 of the 5 classes were so far overpriced that the recyclers would have lost more than double their money recycling the materials. Note: In case anyone reading this quoted boards for us, please know, none of the materials were sold after the test was completed.

Shortly after conducting these pricing surveys I had the privilege to visit an e-waste recycling company in Serbia called e-recycle. One of the most astounding setups I've had the honor to tour. I met with their CEO, Ninoslav and we spent the entire day discussing the e-waste industry.

Which brings me the final misconception plaguing the e-waste industry, that 'all classes of waste are equal and that sending out price lists are the best way to make an offer.' This is dead wrong.

E-recycling Serbia was in possession of the highest grade "class c" boards I have ever seen. When scanned through our software the AI system reported a 100% positive result, showing the boards should be selling for 755 euro per ton. Ninoslav told me, this was very interesting, as their buyer already paid a similar price for these boards and it was exciting to see the software was so accurate with just a single photo. He explained how his company meticulously extracted every toxic component and large capacitor before shipping and the loss of weight from inferior components was what helped raise the value so high.

Normally, unless you find an honest buyer, or a buyer using ViewPas? software to price your materials, recyclers would low-ball your material first until they assayed the material themselves. Even then there's nothing to stop them from lying.

The e-waste industry is full of misconception and price gouging. But if you are a buyer or a seller of e-waste. You need to start protecting your facility from mispriced, over valued or undercut prices. You need precise pricing data, you need more data from every truck of material you are purchasing or collecting. You need to stop paying more for e-waste than what it's worth and the industry as a whole needs to become much more connected and transparent if we are going to keep recyclers, recycling, - for years to come.