E-Waste Recycling: Treasures in Landfills
Consumer electronics develops rapidly. A gadget that was trendy just two years ago now is forgotten and obsolete. Our devices quickly become what is called e-waste and are dumped in landfills. The good news is that this garbage can be recycled at least partially. What are the benefits of e-waste recycling? Let’s try to find out.
What Is E-Waste and How Does It Affect the Environment?
E-waste, e-garbage, e-scrape — all these words mean what happens with your gadgets when they become obsolete or can’t be repaired. This is a huge amount of trash: according to the World Economic Forum and UN report, approximately 50 million tonnes of electronic and electrical waste (e-waste) are produced every year. This weight is equivalent to all commercial planes people have ever built. The report states that only 20% of this trash is formally recycled. “Formally” means recycling facilities where all the safety regulations are followed. However, e-waste often “travels” across the world from rich countries to poor ones where it is pulled apart by hand or burnt, thus affecting people’s health and reducing their lifespan as well as polluting the air, water, and soil. Also, a huge amount of it is dumped in landfills where it pollutes our environment as well.
Electronic devices contain such toxic components as lead, mercury, cadmium, polyvinyl chloride, and other substances. Lead exposure may cause behavioral disturbances, attention deficits, hyperactivity, conduct problems, and lower IQ. Mercury leads to sensory impairment, dermatitis, memory loss, and muscle weakness. High amounts of cadmium can damage filtering mechanisms in kidneys.
What Can Be Recycled
E-waste contains a range of valuable materials: plastic, copper, aluminum, gold, silver, titanium, etc. Many of them can be recycled and used for making new things or devices. For example, recycled plastic is used for making slippers, insulators, trays, and much more. Copper and aluminum are re-melted and re-manufactured. Gold, palladium, silver, and tin are sold to smelters as well. Sure, there are no 100% recyclable gadgets and some materials such as plastic can be recycled only a limited number of times. However, even partial recycling is a better solution than just littering our planet with e-waste.
How Does the Recycling Happen
No manufacturing is possible without raw material. So does recycling. To start with, recyclers need to collect e-waste. They do it by placing collection bins or electronics take-back booths in specific locations from where e-waste is transported to recycling plants.
The next stage is shredding, sorting, and separation. As a rule, shredding is carried out by swing-hammer shredders. These machines are well-suited to process thin-walled metal scraps. As e-waste contains different substances — ferrous and nonferrous metals, plastic, glass, etc. — it needs to be sorted. Various separation techniques make it possible: water separation, magnetic separation, electrostatic separation, and so on. Each of them helps to extract particular material(s). For example, magnetic separation allows you to sort metals by the presence of a magnetic field, removing iron and steel from the waste stream. Water separation is used to separate glass from plastics.
When all the shredding, sorting, and separation processes are finished, recyclers prepare materials for sale. Plastic, metals, and glass can now be used for making new goods, including some electronic devices.
Benefits of E-waste Recycling
Several benefits make e-waste recycling a good option and promising business.
The first is the conservation of available natural resources that aren’t limitless. The more resources we can reuse, the more we can save for future generations.
The second is reducing the environmental pollution. E-waste requires less energy than the extraction of metals from ores and the manufacturing of plastic resin. To recycle copper wire, you just need to melt it down. Getting copper from ore is more complicated and energy-consuming. Recycling allows you to use less energy from non-renewable sources that mean reducing carbon footprint and global warming. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) states: “Recycling one million laptops saves the energy equivalent to the electricity used by more than 3,500 US homes in a year”. However, e-waste includes many other devices as well so you can imagine how huge this energy saving may be.
The third benefit of e-waste recycling is that it creates new jobs. New jobs mean more taxes and fewer unemployed people. Professional recycling requires professionals, equipment, facilities so many people can be involved in this process.
Conclusion
Not only is e-waste recycling a necessity but it is also a promising business. As our planet’s natural resources aren’t limitless, reusing what we already have is inevitable.
