Electronic Waste (E-Waste) is the term used to describe discarded electronic equipment. Television, microwaves, computers, monitors, keyboards, printers, VCR’s, fax machines, electronic games and cell phones fall in this category. These products contain Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs) which are made of lead and cannot be disposed of in your trash or recycling carts.
Main Benefits of E-waste Recycling
Electronic recycling has a load of benefits for both individuals and businesses. Let’s take a look at some of those benefits and why you would want to spend time in recycling your old electronics.
- Recycling Saves Energy – Believe it or not, recycling e-waste can help save energy. Research shows, If a million laptops are recycled each year, it would be the equivalent of energy used in 3,657 homes.
- Decrease Landfill Waste – The amount of waste in landfills within the US is becoming a massive problem. These sites are filling up fast and any time there is a way that you can keep something from going to a landfill it is a good thing!
- Decrease Pollution – Pollution is a huge problem globally. The need to decrease pollution is now. It affects our health and our daily life.
- Security of Personal Information – Electronics hold private information and you want to make sure that you are properly disposing of your electronics so no one can access that information. Working with an e-waste recycling company such as ECC will ensure your secure information is kept private during the disposal phase.
E-Waste Statistics
- E-waste makes up 2% of trash in landfills across the USA but is 70% of overall toxic waste.
- It is estimated that 20 to 50 million metric tons of e-waste are disposed of each year worldwide.
- Over $60 million in gold and silver found in cell phones is dumped each year in landfills.
- Some products that are marked as e-waste are not waste. These products can be repurposed or re-marketed. Only 12.5% of e-waste is recyclable.
- By recycling 1 million cell phones, more than 35,000 pounds of copper, 33 pounds of palladium, 772 pounds of silver, and 75 pounds of gold can be recovered.
