After a "Recycler" Collects Your E-Waste, Do You Know

Where It Really Goes?

All "Recyclers" Espouse Strong Environmental Ethics

Almost every E-waste Recycler boasts of, "100% Recycling", "Zero Landfill" or some other platitude designed to inspire corporate and consumer confidence.

When Is Electronics Recycling Really Just Waste Brokering?

There are only a handful of recyclers in the U.S. who practice environmental ethics. There are many others whose "recycling" claims bely their sham solutions— recycling via export directly, or indirectly through third and fourth parties.

Indeed, industry sources estimate that between 50 to 80 percent of the E-waste collected for recycling in the western U.S. are not recycled domestically, but is very quickly placed on container ships bound for destinations like China.

"You get paid to pick it up, and you get paid by people who want to take it away,’’ said the head of a major recycling company who asked not to be identified. -San Jose Mercury News

In China, Nigeria, India, Pakistan and the Philippines there is a ravenous, unregulated market and wages are dirt-cheap.

Migrant workers crack open and sort the parts of monitors and circuit boards, exposing themselves to toxic metals like lead, mercury and cadmium. They burn PVC cables to extract copper, poisoning the air. They dip circuit boards and chips in acid to recover small amounts of gold, inhaling the fumes and dumping the acid into a nearby river.

Risky Business

Transferring E-waste to recyclers without fully assessing the ultimate disposition of your company’s IT assets is a significant risk.

It can be tempting for some companies based on price considerations, but the risk is just not worth the short term benefit.