How Does Electronic Recycling Work?
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How E-waste Works
If you
don't want to damage the environment, are you supposed to transform your
storage closet into an electronics graveyard? Never fear, the slow but steady
mechanisms of social consciousness have been grinding at this one for a while
now, and movement is starting to happen. Input about e-waste regulations are
coming from a number of fronts, including grassroots organizations, governing
bodies and industrial leaders.
Many
organizations have recognized the potential for e-waste dangers for years.
However, the issue recently came to the forefront of media in 2002, when Basel
Action Network's (BAN) documentary "Exporting Harm" was
released. BAN works to reduce the harmful effects of exporting e-waste and
promotes sustainable solutions to worldwide waste issues. So-called recyclers
and scrap brokers were buying e-waste from developed regions throughout the
world and dumping it in developing nations. In some parts of these countries,
people were dismantling electronics on street corners, instead of in recycling facilities.
Picture
something like this: Mountains of discarded TVs
and computer monitors tower above the rutted streets of a
low-income urban community. In order to make a living, hundreds of people work
in the shadow of this heap of e-waste. Some people tend fires which burn and
remove the plastic from copper wires, putting out billows of noxious smoke.
Other workers swirl circuit boards in tubs of nitric and hydrochloric acid to
release the solder and precious metals -- at the same time releasing gas that
stings their eyes. Plastic chips,
obtained from smashing devices like keyboards and computer casings, are broken into
tiny pieces and carefully sorted before they too are burned and melted together
into a sellable chunk. And at the end of the day, all the byproducts that have
no further useful purposes, like charred circuit boards and used acid
compounds, usually are dumped in open fields and rivers or are burned.
These
are a few examples of the recycling processes that still occur on a daily basis
in some developing regions. But, as mentioned earlier, many countries are
passing new laws to try to halt the process and fix the problem.
For
example, the European Union has a series of directives and regulations aimed to
increase the recovery, reuse and recycling of e-waste and put the burden of
recycling on the manufacturer. The hope is that this will decrease e-waste and
e-waste exports, and encourage manufacturers to create new, greener products.
Ideally, these products would be safer and easier to upgrade, fix and recycle.
The EU has also increased the regulations on different substances common in
e-waste, limited the use of these substances in member countries and banned the
exportation of hazardous waste.
Think
back for a minute at the procession of computers, TVs, cell
phones, radios, game consoles and
music players that have passed through your hands over the years. What about
the endless stream of products such as vacuum
cleaners, microwaves, hair dryers, electric toothbrushes,
alarm clocks, lamps, lawn mowers and smoke
detectors that have come in and
out of your life?
These
are just a few examples of devices that are part of the growing phenomenon
known as e-waste. E-waste is the
term used to describe discarded electronics and electrical products. In the
past few decades, the world's demand for gadgetry has gone through the roof
and, inevitably, more waste has started to accumulate. As the bustling
economies of China and India modernize and follow more Western trends, the
worldwide generation of e-waste has hit astronomical proportions.
So what
happens to all that e-waste? E-waste contains a bonanza of toxic and hazardous
components that, for the most part, are currently being shunted into landfills.
Much of the remaining portion is exported to developing nations, where
many laborers, working under unsafe, unregulated conditions, recycle this
e-waste. The work these laborers do, while it does provide some raw materials
that can be reused, comes with some serious consequences.
At
present, we're just beginning to realize how serious those consequences are.
Long-term exposure to small doses of toxins is less understood than the effects
of those toxins in larger doses. In all likelihood, it's dangerous to spend
your days touching fragments of toxic metals like lead and mercury. Common sense implies that
inhaling the fumes from flame-retardant chemicals and highly corrosive acids
isn't a good idea. And dumping byproducts of this recycling process into
drinking-water sources can't be good for anyone.
The
upshot is people have begun taking notice of these conditions, and several
initiatives to protect the environment and human health have gained traction
recently. Governments from around the world are passing regulations to curtail
e-waste, and an increasing number of industrial improvements pop up every day.
Reduce,
Reuse, Recycle E-waste
Motivated
to start sending your old electronic devices and electrical household products
to a good home?
First,
check to see if your device's manufacturer will take the product back. Take-back programs are slowly expanding, and many
companies allow customers to return at least some computer models and equipment
when they no longer want them. Apple, Dell, Hewlett Packard, Sony and Toshiba
are some of the companies that take back some of your old electronic devices.
You may be charged a small fee to return your computer and, as the saying goes, other rules
and restrictions may apply. Some companies will take back any brand of
electronics; others will accept their products only. From there, your e-waste
may be completely recycled by the manufacturer or refurbished for
future use.
Another
option is to recycle e-waste by taking your old electronics and electrical junk
to a legitimate e-waste recycler who practices on-site recycling. The process
typically uses an expensive recycling machine, which is fairly common in Europe but less so in the U.S. The machine
smashes the electronics and takes them down a conveyor belt. The process uses
vibrating screens and magnetic fields to extract different elements. Another
common way involves workers (wearing proper protective gear) in a disassembly
line, who take apart the electronics piece by piece and sort the contents.
Then, different machines break the various pieces down to the point where they
can be reused. Again, you might be asked to pay a small fee depending on what
you bring in.
Don't
let your storage closets and garages become electronic burial grounds. Visit
the links on the next page for more information about e-waste and legitimate
recycling.
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