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Saying Goodbye: An eWaste Story
December 31, 1969 |Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
There's a public service announcement on the radio that warns us about the dangers of airplane turbulence. "Our bodies aren't meant to withstand it!," the ad cries. Well, as it turns out, humans are relatively resilient to the bounces and jolts on an airplane. The same can not be said for my laptop, which, on a recent cross-country trip, came to the proverbial "end of product life cycle" with an irreparable broken screen. We've been spending quite a bit of time lately on electronics recycling in SMT, and with a non-functioning portable consumer electronic device on my hands, I've decided to "put up or shut up," and navigate the various outlets of electronics recycling available.
Several laptop OEMs Consumer Reports names Dell and Apple as examples will recycle your deceased computer regardless of brand, providing you invest in a new system with them. It sounds like a relatively pain-free method of supporting electronics recycling, but I was not yet sure what brand and what model I wanted to start over with, so I decided to explore a one-way approach first.
In the interest of going as local as possible, I called the U.S. Environmental Recycling Hotline at 1-800-CLEAN-UP to get a list of recycling facilities that accept electronic waste in my area. We timed the call at about 5 minutes, which involved entering my zipcode and navigating an automated-reply system. You'll find electronics listed under "Municipal Bulky Waste." Information as to the name, location, proximity to major roads, hours of operation, and phone and Website were given for a recycling center. It seemed quite helpful, except that the list of materials accepted at my location was empty. I called the number provided, and reached a residence. So the system is not without flaws, but eventually I was able to reach the recycling and transfer center. The $5 fee for electronic appliances not containing Freon which, to my knowledge, a laptop does not contain seemed reasonable.
The local recycling center wasn't open on convenient dates and times for me, so I looked at centers not operated by the state/town. East Coast Electronics Recycling, Inc., a local office of Supreme Asset Management and Recovery (SAMR), provides a range of services from one-day events to at-location pick-up and handles e-waste specifically. The company offers data wiping services for retired computers, operates with a zero-landfill mission, and charges per-client based on volume, pick-up style, and services. Its main recycling facility has a Class D recycling permit and is audited monthly to verify compliance with all local and federal regulations.
This electronics-focused recycling company is part of a growing trend in developed nations that are becoming more conscious of the impact of waste on the environment, as well as unhealthy conditions faced in e-recycling plants in underdeveloped regions. Technicians determine re-manufacturability of components, subassemblies, and like electronics. Non-usable devices, PCBs, displays (remember my shattered laptop screen?), and components are recycled with modern techniques. Useless assemblies are dismantled by softening the solder and removing components, which are often resale-worthy, as are some high-value PCBs. Less-desirable PCBs then are stripped down to fiberglass laminate and scrap metal, which is sent to metal refineries and smelters. SAMR processes in excess of 50 million pounds of electronic waste down to glass, cathode-ray tubes (CRTs), and scrap metals yearly in the U.S.
Thanks to fairly young legislation in Massachusetts, I can also bring the computer to a Goodwill location, whose recycling costs are then paid by the state. All these options are starting to make me wonder if my trashed laptop might actually be worth something as a trade-in. Join me next week to journey into the holiday shopping abyss the malls and explore the trade-in model of electronics recycling, for part two of the saga.
Meredith Courtemanche, managing editor