END-OF-LIFE

Why is recycling better than disposal? Because it has a greater benefit to the environment to use materials that we have already mined in our new products and avoid depletion of our limited natural resources, and it reduces the more harmful effects that mining contributes to climate change. Plus, recycling reduces the need landfill space and all the related harm that comes from electronics graveyards on people and the planet. This is the transformation from a take – make – use – dispose society to a circular lifecycle where we exhaust all the usefulness out of our electronics.

Recovering the materials from electronics requires a lot of pieces to the whole puzzle.

There are many challenges from transportation, collection, dealing with hazardous materials, and harmful methods. Unfortunately, we have come to expect recycling to be free, funded by the value of the materials in the electronics. In some cases, people hold onto their electronics thinking someone is going to pay them a value. In actuality, as technology evolves, it is made with less expensive materials, so the value of the materials is decreasing. But we have to consider the full cost of not recycling. It means we are paying waste disposal fees to burn it or put it in a landfill. And we are paying for the harmful effects on our health and our environment as well as the compounding affect that disposal causes more mining for materials to build the next products. Recycling may cost money with some less valuable devices, but it is the right thing to do for the greater good.

Market prices are often a good indicator of the sustainability and responsibility of a vendor. When prices are too good to be true, they usually are. They may be cherry picking the good stuff and dumping the rest. They might be exporting it to developing countries with harmful processing techniques like acid baths and open burning in the backyard and dismantling in the family home. They might be selling broken electronics under the disguise of reusable equipment and exporting in large containers to these same developing countries. There are many smoke and mirror tricks to watch out for.

When recycling is done well, it results in a full circular economy where the materials from our old electronics become the feedstock to make new stuff.

But when in it is not done properly and corners are cut, or not recycled at all, the results can leave the customer vulnerable to fines and negative publicity. Imagine your logo or label on a pile of electronic trash just dumped in the woods. Imagine your hard drive being bought online and your financial records sold on the dark web. The negative PR hit and the damage to the brand equity you have spent years building simply isn’t worth saving a few bucks.

Stewardship programs (EPR)

These programs are often also referred to as Extended Producer Responsibility. The theory is that manufacturers created these devices with hazardous materials and therefore they should be obligated to collect and recycle them at the end of their useful life to prevent environmental pollution and harm human health. Manufacturers of new electronics are legally obligated to collect used electronics for recycling. Some electronics are a positive value and others may be a cost to recycle. What we have learned is that abandoned stockpiles of e-waste are usually the result of undercutting the real cost of recycling. Valuable materials are stripped and costly materials are left behind. While producers are diligent in minimizing the cost of their obligations, paying again to cleanup what was not properly recycled the first time is not part of their planning or calculation. The challenge for is that once products are sold to consumers, they are distributed around the world. It is usually impractical for a manufacturer to collect enough of their product to meet the targets. So they collect all kinds of products from other manufacturers to meet their obligations. This coalescing of all kinds of electronics with different materials and chemistries makes the process of materials recovery through recycling even the more difficult. What if manufacturers could get their own products with the right materials to put back into manufacturing their new products? Even if it wouldn’t close the loop completely, it could at least help de-risk the supply chain.

Residential Collections

These are like producer responsibility programs, but the difference is in who pays for recycling. If the electronics are higher value, it is likely free to residents. However, many times those items with value are sold by residents, and what comes through these collection programs are mostly items that have a cost to recycle. So there is a lot of pressure to either charge the residents more money or cut corners in the recycling process to reduce costs. Residents are usually willing to pay a little to do the right thing, but beyond a reasonable threshold and they may dump the equipment illegally. (Hint: it is often more palatable for consumers to pay a recycling fee when they buy new electronics than trying to collect at the end-of-life). Regardless of the funding, responsible and sustainable recycling is a must. The downside simply leads to too many known negative consequences that we simply cannot afford.

Business Recycling

This is what companies do with their really old electronics, because EPR programs and residential collections usually don’t accept electronics from larger businesses. Theoretically this should not be necessary if they follow a tech refresh schedule that gives their retired electronics a new life. Sometimes the equipment is used until it is truly end-of-life in the business and that’s ok. Often times, this is the result of electronics being stored in a room or warehouse because there was not a good solution or the business considered the cost a barrier to handle the right way right away.

General Recommendations:
To recycle responsibly, we need to be committed. It can’t be only “recycle it only if you can make money on the resulting materials.” Recycling is a service, just like garbage collection and disposal. We pay for the service of garbage disposal. It is flawed thinking to think that recycling should be any different. Here are some ideas: