The Problem with E-Waste

It’s Crazy How Much the e-Waste Problem is Piling Up!

Electronic waste or e-waste is a rapidly growing problem. The UN partnered STEP (solving the e-waste problem) group estimates that e-waste has grown up to 50 million tons per year. What’s worse is that this number is predicted to more than double to 111 million tons per year by 2050.

Throwing Away Used Electronics Can Cost You Big Time

Due to the nature of commercialism such as U.S. major shopping days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, a large number of electronics get thrown away on Thanksgiving and New Years holidays.

As new, inexpensive electronics are purchased, used electronics can start piling up. The households and businesses are left to figure out what to do with old computers, broken televisions, and obsolete electronics. These items are often stored and forgotten about or simply thrown in the trash. Both of these scenarios contribute to the world’s e-waste problems and are bad for your wallet.

IT assets and electronic assets decrease in value rapidly. The longer they sit in a storage room, closet, or corner, the less valuable they are. Once the items reach obsolete status, the only option left is to recycle it.

How Can I Give My Used Electronics a Second Life?

The most efficient way to prevent IT equipment and electronic equipment from being sent to landfills is to reuse. The whole item can be given another useful life in the secondary markets if it’s still in working condition and not antiquated.

Get Money From Your Old Business Equipment

It’s in your company’s and your personal best financial interest to work with an IT recycler to quickly process your IT assets in order to maximize the return on IT equipment investment. So the next time you upgrade your company’s PCs, laptops, servers, routers, switches, or cell phones, have an IT recycler that offers remarketing in place.

Responsibly Recycle Your Old Home Electronics

The next time you want to replace your old TV or upgrade to the newest gaming system in your home, make a plan for what to do with your older electronics.

How Do I Dispose of My Unneeded IT Equipment?

The most often used method of disposal of old or unneeded IT equipment is to simply throw it in the trash. Equipment fails for many reasons. We drop cell phones, spill things on our laptops, knock over and crack monitors, and sometimes seemingly unexplainably, equipment just quits working. The friendly neighborhood waste department may not have an e-waste policy and even if they do, it might not be widely known or followed. Instead of putting your old electronics and IT equipment out with the trash, you should recycle it with an electronics recycler.

Why Is e-Waste Dangerous?

Equipment such as laptops contain chemicals such as beryllium, lead, chromium, and mercury compounds. These chemicals are toxic or carcinogenic to humans. They are safely contained in the metal and plastic laptop cases. However, when a laptop is discarded in traditional garbage and landfills, these chemicals can leach into the surrounding topsoil. The topsoil can potentially contaminate the groundwater which can in turn contaminate the surrounding vegetation which can harm the area fauna and humans.

Why Is Our Electronic Waste a Problem Child Around the World?

Another ugly truth of the e-waste industry is that much of the e-waste produced in developed countries gets shipped off to be dumped in developing countries. In these developing countries, the e-waste is sifted through by individuals, often children, looking for any saleable materials. These people face the same contamination issues from the chemicals. However, due to the less developed environment, they have fewer options to circumvent the issue and fewer resources to correct the damage.

In order to combat this horrific issue, the IT recycling industry has several organizations that fight to ensure all e-waste is handled in a socially and environmentally responsible manner. Industry standards set by Responsible Recycling or R2 help to guide IT recycling companies to the best routes and methods of handling the e-waste as well as require transparency certified companies’ recycling processes.

How Do We Fix the e-Waste Problem?

IT assets and electronics are here to stay. We depend on our computers, cell phones, televisions, networks, etc. to provide us with modern lifestyles. That also means that e-waste is here to stay as well. It’s up to each and every company and individual to do what we can to minimize the negative impact of our modern conveniences. Rocycle can help with all your IT asset and electronic recycling needs. Contact Rocycle today!

If you have excess or outdated IT equipment that you need disposed of or off lease equipment that you need processed, give Rocycle a call.

Our fast, efficient, and valuable service is sure to please you!