We still see electronic waste piling up at the dump although several medias reported about the problems made by wrongly disposing of obsolete or defective e-waste.
It does not make sense because a lot of the material: steel, glass, copper, aluminum, plastics and precious metals – can be recovered and be used again to make new items. Computers are being replaced more frequently than ever, cell phones are frequently breaking and electronic is now looked at as something that is disposable rather than a material possession. The average turn-around for upgrading a PC is shorter than two years in North America.
The gadgets are not always needed; it is not all about a real need but mostly because we just seem to appreciate having new stuff, with the latest gadgets and features. Electronic has become a fashion article that will not be wanted as soon as something that looks newer will come to the market.
Is there a motive for people not recycling their electronic equipment?
Much noise has been made by associations like Greenpeace concerning the poor practices of some recycling companies outsourcing their recycling to Asian and African countries or simply exporting waste towards these countries. The message from Greenpeace has chocked many individuals and I think the result has not been quite what was to happen. Greenpeace demonstrated to the whole world how big quantities of hazardous material ends being wrongly recycled in China. So we can deduct that some individuals and organizations are holding on their material, unsure if it will ends in a proper place.
It is not a good idea to put our head under the sand and not recycling our e-waste at all. A few associations such as CARI-ACIR are there to verify that their members are going trough some rules such as avoiding exports to third world countries and not sending e-waste to landfills. All accredited companies are verified and customers can be insured of a proper recycling of their equipment when they send to one of their member.
Many people are still in the belief that they should get money returned to them for their electronic waste. Others think that a company could go bring up the electronic material, properly sort and separate it, unscrew the plastic pieces from the metal parts and pay North American salaries without asking for a cent to their customer. People have to understand that recycling obsolete computers only bring back a few cents per kg of material. Recyclers offering free pickups and free recycling are most probably doing something unethical if they are not financed directly by the government to do it. PC Recycle, a company started fifteen years ago still has to fight against unethical players in the field with no physical place, literally managing their business from a cell phone and a pickup truck. Those “recyclers†are saving what they can put back on the market and the remaining is most probably shipped to landfills even though the contrary is told to their clients. At least, nobody can verify because these false recyclers are not accredited by any organization.
Before choosing someone to recycle your electronic, check around and find who their competition is. If the company does a free recycling, it should raise a red flag. You should always verify that your recycler is part of an association. And make sure that your recycler is open to show you his recycling center: a clean recycling will happen from a recycler that is totally transparent in his operations.
Jason Mailley
PC Recycle
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