Why Recycling E-waste Is So Important

The Real Cost of Technology and 

Why You Should Recycle Responsibly 

* Submitted by Zack Gallinger of Revolution (a company within the Shift portfolio)- a recycler based in Toronto and Ottawa that specializes in safe and environmentally-friendly disposal of old electronics, secure data destruction and IT asset disposition services. Check out the hyperlinks throughout the article, taking you to several articles on the issues presented here; also be sure to view the resources at the end of this post. 

Before you buy your next electronic gadget, here’s something to think about that goes beyond the features on your wish list or where you’ll find that gadget for the lowest price. Does the amount you will pay accurately reflect the true cost of that item? If you’re like most people, you’d likely conclude that it does. Here’s why you’d be wrong.

Direct and Indirect Costs

Setting a price for any product can take into consideration two kinds of costs: direct and indirect. Companies generally use just direct costs for pricing unless the government forces them to factor in indirect costs. Direct costs of a product are more obvious—materials, labour, rent, packaging, transportation and marketing. Indirect costs, however, are much less apparent. In the case of electronics, indirect costs include damage to the environment when items are thrown away rather than recycled. Even when electronics are recycled, the indirect costs to the environment will depend on how ethical the recycling process is. Since it is estimated that only 20 percent of electronics are being recycled, the indirect costs are much higher than necessary.

The costs of unethical electronics recycling include:

• the negative health effects for people who process toxic chemicals without proper protection
• the costs of the violence associated with conflict resources
• the costs of mining new metals rather than extracting metals through recycling
• fewer jobs compared to those created with ethical recycling 

Toxic Third World Landfills

It’s no secret that developed countries ship much of their e-waste to developing countries for processing. This is called the global waste trade. While China recently closed its doors to this practice, there are plenty of countries still accepting e-waste. They tend to be located in western Africa and Asia. Unfortunately, in the countries that process e-waste, laws governing environmental safety and human health and safety are minimal to non-existent. Toxic materials such as mercury, lead, arsenic, cadmium, beryllium, chromium and other components of electronics contaminate both the environment and harm the workers processing them.

Violence Associated With Conflict Resources

Conflict resources are natural resources extracted in a conflict zone and sold to perpetuate the fighting. The four most commonly mined conflict minerals are cassiterite, wolframite, coltan and gold ore. Other conflict minerals include cobalt and tungsten. These conflict minerals are mined in the eastern Congo in Africa and are essential for the manufacture of electronic items such as cell phones and laptops. Proceeds from the sale of these minerals are used to fund conflicts throughout the region. Responsible recycling would reduce dependence on mined conflict minerals.

Recovering Valuable Resources vs. Mining New Metals

It is estimated that 44.7 million metric tonnes of e-waste were generated globally in 2016. The amount of valuable raw materials contained in that total, including metals such as gold, silver, copper, platinum and palladium, would be worth an estimated US$64.6 billion if recovered through recycling. 

Did you know?... 

Toronto and Ottawa populations (roughly 5,928,040 each) 

each produce around 59,280,400 pounds of electronic waste every single year. 

Further Resources: 

https://www.ted.com/talks/bandi_mbubi_demand_a_fair_trade_cell_phone

http://consciousdiscussions.blogspot.com/search?q=e-waste





Revolution’s blog: https://www.revrecycling.com/blog/