Prevent environmental damage from the toxic hazardous waste of discarded computers and electronics.
Why Recycle your Computers and Electronics?
As we become more dependent on electronic products to make life more convenient, the stockpile of used and discarded products grows. Discarded computers and electronics are toxic hazardous waste. The 300 million or more computers that are discarded contain a total of more than 1.2 billion pounds of lead. About 40% of the heavy metals, including lead, mercury and cadmium, in landfills come from electronic equipment discards. The health effects of lead are well known; just 1/70th of a teaspoon of mercury can contaminate 20 acres of a lake, making the fish unfit to eat.
In additiona to computers and monitors, mobile phones are being discarded at an increasing rate. Millions of TV’s are heading for landfills due to recent digital and high definition technology upgrades. These alarming numbers are only to increase as we see new electronic game consoles and telecommunication devices hit market.
Computer monitors and older TV picture tubes contain an average of four pounds of lead and require special handling at the end of their lives. In addition to lead, electronics can contain chromium, cadmium, mercury, beryllium, nickel, zinc and brominates flame retardants. When electronics are not disposed of or recycled properly, these toxic materials can present problems.
- Cadmium – found in chip resistors, infrared detectors and semiconductors Cadmium can accumulate in and negatively impact, the kidneys. Cadmium is persistent, bio-accumulative, and toxic. The principle exposure pathway is through respiration and through our food.
- Lead – found in glass panels in computer monitors and in lead soldering of printed circuit boards. Lead can cause damage to the central and peripheral nervous systems, blood systems and kidneys in humans. Lead has also been shown to have negative effects on the development of children’s brains. Lead can accumulate in the environment and have a detrimental effect on plants, animals, and humans. Consumer electronics may be reposition for 40% of the lead found in landfills. The principle pathway of concern is lead leaching from landfills and contaminating drinking water supplies.
- Mercury – found in thermostats, position sensors, relays and switches (e.g. on printed circuit boards), discharge lamps and batteries. It is also used in medical equipment, data transmission, telecommunication and mobile phones. When mercury make sits way into waterways, it is transformed into mentholated mercury in the sediments. Methyl mercury accumulates in living organisms and travels up the food chain. Methyl mercury can cause brain damage. The principle exposure pathway is through our food.
- Hexavalent Chromium or Chromium VI – can be used to protect against corrosion of untreated and galvanized steel plates.
- Chromium VI can damage DNA and has been linked to asthmatic bronchitis. The major pathways are through land leachate or from fly ash generated when materials containing Chromium VI are incinerated.
- Brominated Flame Retardants – found on printed circuit boards, components such as plastic covers ad cables as well as plastic covers of televisions. Although less is known about BFRs than some other contaminants of concern, but research has shown that one of these flame retardants, Polybrominated Diphenylethers (PDBE) might act and an endocrine disrupter. Flame retard (Polybrominated Biphenyls(PBB) may increase cancer risk to the of the digestive and lymph systems. Once release into the environment through landfill leachate and incineration they are concentrated in the food chain.
- Plastic – Because manufacturers use many different types of plastic in electronic equipment, it is the most challenging to recycle. These plastics often include contaminants such as metal screws and inserts, coatings and paints, foams and labels. Currently, plastics from electronic equipment are both difficult and costly to sort for sing resin feedstock’s markets and there are limited markets for the mixed plastics stream. Also plastics can be treated with brominates flame retardants, making them harder to recycle and possibly dangerous to those exposed to them.
Additionally, electronics are made with valuable resources such as precious metals, engineered plastics, glass and other materials – all of which require energy to manufacture. When equipment is thrown away, these resources cannot be recovered and additional pollution will be generated to manufacture new products out of Virgin materials.
Only 11% of discarded computers are currently being recycled. Many older computers are either stored (in basements, garages, offices, closets and homes awaiting a decision) or increasingly tossed out with the trash out of ignorance of the hazards contained in them.
And what about the 11% that are recycled? Most recycling companies de-manufacturer rather than re-manufacture old comuters. The computer is broken down and the valuable metals are removed from the equipment and sold. The rest gets dumped into landfills or incinerated.
At Second Life Computer Remanufacturing ninety-five percent by weight of dicarded electroinc equipment is kept and reused, and never enters the waste stream. By taking your old computers out of the waste stream and remanufacturing them, they enjoy a "second life" as refurbished computers in developing nations.