The very first thing that you will notice is that timely recycling of electronic waste enables us to recover not just reusable plastic and metal but various precious elements as well. It helps us save our natural resources and enables us to reduce pollution by conserving landfill spaces.
Do you know that recycling 1 million cell phones can help us recover around 75 pounds of gold? This is an astounding amount of precious metal in addition to 772 pounds of silver, 35,000 pounds of copper which is a great conductor of electricity, and also 33 pounds of palladium.
Various electronic waste recycling services also encourage the end-user to participate in take-back coalitions and committees. This is the only way to prevent this e waste from reaching developing countries and polluting their environment. It also helps you save nearly 1.5 tons of water and 530 pounds of fossil fuel. According to studies, these resources, in addition to 40 pounds of chemicals go into manufacturing just a single computer and monitor. Now you know why we need national electronic recycling and data destruction on a larger scale.
The Electronic Recycling Process - Wrapping Your Head Around It
The entire process of data destruction and electronic recycling can be very tiring and complex. All the sophisticated and state-of-the-art devices that we discard so frequently contain varying proportions of metals and toxic compounds as well. They also comprise glass, plastics, sockets, circuits, wires, and a lot more. This is why many ITAD companies resort to the manual separation of these parts as well. For other complicated processes, there are sophisticated, machines and plants in place. Let us begin with a general overview of the entire process of electronic recycling in the simplest words:
Collection And Transportation Of E Waste
These are two processes that are combined to make sure that none of the e-waste gets in the hands of uninformed and informal handlers. This is the first step towards effective and ethical recycling of hardware such as computers, screens, processors, air conditioners, smartphones, home assistants, Bluetooth speakers, and a lot more. These electronic waste items are transferred to specific locations where they are handled by skilled and qualified professionals.
Shredding, Sorting, And Separation Of IT Assets
Once all the electronic waste is collected at a single place, the various waste products are sorted out and categorized. The items that need to be crushed and recycled are separated from the ones that can be put to reuse. The separation of plastics from several metals and compounds, internal circuits, wires, and other objects is carried out very carefully.
Many ewaste companies also employ water separation technology to segregate glass from plastic objects. Any remaining metal remnants are also located and extracted during the final stages of separation.
The items that are to be recycled are sent to the shredder. And finally, the ones that are to be resold, are kept in separate containers either to be processed or repaired or just sold raw to hardware stores across the city. This is how ewaste recycling works and it is time we became a part of this process before it is too late.
