Electronics must be, as a class, the most disposable items. People don’t wait in line for three days to get the new iPhone because their old one doesn’t work; their reasons have a lot more to do with their self-image than with the features of the latest version. Old computers and TVs are shuffled to the back of the closet.
Why Electronics Recycling Really Matters
Electronics recycling is now the law for many good reasons: gold, silver, copper, steel, platinum, palladium, tin, zinc and plastic. The amounts in any one device may be small, but add up. When one million cellphones are recycled, about $2.5 million in gold and silver can be reclaimed. Recycling is even good for national security; some electronic devices contain critically important rare earth minerals. China is the primary exporter of many rare minerals and warns that one day they will cease exporting because their own industry will consume the entire supply.
How are Electronics Recycled?
At the collection point, which can be a local government drop-off or a retail business such as BLH Computers, everything is sorted. Items are divided between those that will be reused as is (collectors and hobbyists look for certain items), refurbished, or sent on to the first recycling point. At the recycling plant, the items are shredded into small chunks.
An optical sorting system identifies the properties of the little pieces on a conveyor belt as they pass by a laser beam. The chunks are sorted into different containers for plastic (the bulk of the material), metal and computer chips. These have now become commodities to be sold on the world market. Some will remain in the U.S., but much of it will go overseas. China is a major player in these markets.
The final recycling cycle will take the crushed pieces and process them further into a pure metal for resale and reuse or, in the case of the plastics, it will be used to manufacture a new product. Many manufacturers, especially overseas, take advantage of the fact that the recycled plastic already contains expensive additives, such as fire retardants.
BLH Computers collects electronics for recycling. Of course, they are also the place to bring computers for repair. Excellent refurbished laptops and other items are available for sale at extremely low prices. Visit the Website to learn more and see the complete list of items that they will accept for recycling.
