Why is E-Waste Recycling so important?

When your electronic device stops working or is replaced with a newer model – where does it go? If you don’t donate or recycle it – it will probably end up like 80% of the global electronic waste: dumped, traded, or recycled in potentially harmful ways.

It’s safe to say that the e-waste problem is enormous on a global level, and can be seen as the toxic legacy of our hyper digitalized age. To give you a bit of perspective, more than 48 million tons of electronic waste are produced every year, 6.9 million being generated by the US only. Moreover, the amount of worldwide e-waste is expected to go beyond 50 million tons in 2020.

The average individual owns three or four electronic devices that are usually replaced with newer generations every two years. As expected, the majority of the obsolete devices go into the trash can, ending up in landfills, poisoning the soil and water with chemicals such as lead, mercury and cadmium. While discarding your old electronics in the trash bin may be the handiest option, here are some solid reasons why you should take recycling into account, put together by our team at Gold Circuit E-Cycling:

·       E-Waste leads to severe pollution.

Electronic waste can take thousands(!) of years to decompose, and during that time, it has damaging effects on the environment. Toxic chemicals such as lead, mercury and cadmium are released into the soil, water, and air, contaminating the environment on multiple levels. For example, if the toxic residues end up into the groundwater, it will make its way to streams, ponds and lakes – which are sources for animals, plants and humans. As a consequence, e-waste can compromise the food chain and amplify numerous health risks.

Another common way of getting rid of e-waste is to burn it incinerators – which may sound like the right solution, but it’s actually harmful. Electronics are composed of plastics, glass, metals and other materials which produce dangerous emissions if burned instead of being recycled properly. Apart from the direct risk posed to animals, humans, and plants, emissions result in greenhouse gases, ultimately influencing climate change and global warming.

If your e-waste doesn’t end up in landfills or incinerators, the ocean is another viable dumping area. Electronics are rich in microplastics and non-biodegradable materials – therefore, once they reach the ocean, they become deadly to fauna and fauna, causing ecosystem disruption.

The Cost of Electronics

• Producing a computer along with its monitor takes at least 1.5 tons of water, 48 pounds of chemicals, and 530 pounds of fossil fuels.
• Compared to disposal in landfills or by incinerators, reusing or recycling computers can create 296 more jobs per year for every 10,000 tons of computer waste processed.
• Only 20% of e-waste is documented to have been collected and recycled, despite high-value recoverable materials such as copper and gold.
• Americans throw away an estimated $55 billion in e-waste material annually (more than 2019 Gross Domestic Product of many countries.)
• 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.
• The excessive amount of lead in e-waste, if released into the environment, could cause severe damage to human blood and kidneys, as well as central and peripheral nervous systems.

E-Waste in the U.S.

• Americans spent $71 billion on telephone and communication equipment in 2019, nearly five times what they spent in 2010 even when adjusted for inflation.
• Americans now own approximately 24 electronic products per household.
• Only 19 states have laws banning electronics from the regular trash. In states without such rules, like Nevada, electronics often end up in garbage and recycling bins.

^·     Recycling one million laptops can save enough energy to run 3,500 U.S. homes for a year.

• In the United States and Canada, every individual produces roughly 20kg of e-waste annually

Recycling e-waste rather than leaving it at a landfill is a responsible choice for the environment. By recycling, any of the materials that can be recycled can be reused and made into other items. 

When it’s time to say goodbye to electronics in your home or office, we’d love to be your first stop for items that can’t be donated or repaired. Give us a call today if you have any questions at 888-283-0007. We look forward to helping reduce your waste production and helping you recycle your old electronics in a safe manner!