The Problem With Electronics and E-Waste

Products Are Quickly Obsolete and Discarded

In the US, we scrap about 400 million units per year of consumer electronics, according to recycling industry experts. Rapid advances in technology mean that electronic products are becoming obsolete more quickly. This, coupled with explosive sales in consumer electronics, means that more products are being disposed, even if they still work.

More on how products become quickly obsolete

Electronics are Difficult To Recycle

Recycling electronics isn’t like recycling cardboard. These products are not easy to recycle. Proper and safe recycling often costs more money than the materials are worth. Why?

Electronics are not designed for recycling

Materials used and physical designs make recycling challenging. While companies claim to offer “green electronics,” we are a far way from truly green products.

More on not designed for recycling.

Electronics contain many toxic materials

Monitors and televisions made with tubes (not flat panels) have between 4 and 8 pounds of lead in them. Most of the flat panel monitors and TV’s contain less lead, but more mercury, from their mercury lamps. About 40% of the heavy metals, including lead, mercury and cadmium, in landfills come from electronic equipment discards.

More on toxics in electronics.

Discarded Electronics Are Managed Badly

Most e-waste still goes in the landfill

The EPA estimates that in 2009, the US generated nearly 3.2 million TONS of e-waste. But only 18% of that was collected for recycling. The other 82% went to landfills and incinerators, despite the fact that hazardous chemicals in them can leach out of landfills into groundwater and streams, or that burning the plastics in electronics can emit dioxin.  More on e-waste in the landfill.

Most Recyclers Don’t Recycle, They Export

And what about the 13% that is supposedly recycled? Most recycling firms take the low road, exporting instead of recycling. From 50 to 80% of e-waste that is collected for recycling is shipped overseas for dismantling under horrific conditions, poisoning the people, land, air, and water in China, other Asian nations and to Ghana and Nigeria in western Africa.  More info on global e-waste dumping.

Prison Recycling: High Tech Chain Gang

Electronic recycling operations are increasingly active within America’s prison systems. Inmate laborers are not automatically afforded the same degree of worker health and safety protections as are people employed on the outside, nor are they paid comparable wages. Moreover, reliance on high tech chain gangs may frustrate development of the free market infrastructure necessary to safely manage our mountains of e-waste.  More on prison recycling