Repeated Replacement Electronics
With such a very short useful life, electronics transition to e-waste at a rapid pace. In fact, it was estimated that close to 500 million unused cell phones are accumulating in people's homes. Globally, a cell phone is sold annually to about 25% of the population, and every year millions of electronic devices such as mobile phones, televisions, computers, laptops, and tablets reach the end of their useful lives.
What happens to devices at the end of their useful lives
Unfortunately, the majority of these electronic waste disposal up in landfills, and just 12.5% of e-waste is recycled. According to a United Nations study, more than 41.8 million tons of e-waste were discarded worldwide, with only 10% –40% percent being done appropriately. Electronics are loaded with many valuable materials including copper, tin, iron, aluminum, fossil fuels, titanium, gold and silver. Many materials used in making these electronic devices can be recovered, reused, and recycled, including plastic, metal, and glass.
In a report, Apple revealed that it recovered $ 40 million - 2,204 pounds of gold in 2015 from recycled iPhones, Macs and iPads.
Benefits of e-waste recycling
Recycling e-waste enables us to recover various valuable metals and other materials from electronics, conserve natural resources (energy), reduce pollution, conserve landfill space and create jobs. According to the EPA, recycling one million laptops can save energy equivalent to electricity that can run 3,657 American homes for a year. Recycle a million cell phones can recover 75 pounds of gold, 772 pounds of silver, 35,274 pounds of copper and 33 pounds of palladium.
On the other end, e-waste recycling helps to cut production waste. According to the Electronics Takeback Coalition, it takes 1.5 tons of water, 530 lbs of fossil fuel, and 40 pounds of chemicals to manufacture and monitor a single computer. 81% of the energy connected to the computer is used during production and not during operation.
Electronics recycling process
Electronics recycling can be challenging because discarded electronics devices are sophisticated devices manufactured from varying proportions of glass, metal and plastic. The process of recycling can vary, depending on the materials being recycled and the technologies employed, but here is a general overview.
Collection and transportation: Collection and transportation are two of the initial stages of the recycling process, including electronic waste disposal. Recyclers place collection bins or electronics take-back booths in specific locations and transport e-waste collected from these sites to recycling plants and facilities.
Clipping, Sorting and Separation: For transportation facilities after recycling and collection, materials must be processed in the e-waste stream and separated into clean items that can be used to create new products. Efficient separation of materials is the foundation of electronics recycling. The e-waste peeling facilitates the sorting and separation of plastics from metals and internal circuitry, and the waste items are cut into pieces and prepared for further sorting as 100 mm.
A powerful overhead magnet separates iron and steel from the waste stream on the conveyor and then prepares it for sale as recycled steel. Also mechanical processing separates aluminum, copper and circuit boards from the material stream - which is now mostly plastic. Water separation technology is used to separate glass from plastic. The final step in the separation process detects and removes any remaining metal residue from the plastic to further purify the current.
Preparation for sale as recycled material: After performing the shearing, sorting and separation steps, the individual materials are ready for sale as usable raw materials for the production of new electronics or other products.
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