How electronics recycling works
Ever wonder how electronics recycling works? Wonder no more! We recently visited Evergreen IT Solutions, an electronics recycling facility in the East Bay to get the full download on what happens to the electronics we pick up as featured categories and where everything goes.
Here’s what it actually looks like to recycle your old electronics:
One of the biggest challenges of electronics recycling is just sorting everything. A facility like Evergreen IT Solutions receives a wide range of materials every day and must carefully separate all of the different materials (including untangling a lot of cords) before they can be dealt with.
A non-exhaustive list of what we saw there included: monitors, keyboards, mice, charging cords for every possible device, telephones, networking devices, computers, power tools, vending machines, and one COVID temperature sensing machine.
If high value items like laptops are still working, they are wiped clean and refurbished. These funds help cover the costs of recycling lower value materials like printers and keyboards. Broken electronics along with items like keyboards and mice are lower value since they’re in less demand so they usually get recycled instead of resold.
Electronics must first be shredded so their component parts (mainly metals and plastic) can be separated and recycled. Evergreen IT Solutions is R2V3 certified, which means that everything they recycle is dismantled and processed in the United States. Certifications like R2V3 help ensure that US consumers can feel confident that their discarded electronics are handled domestically using proper health, safety and environmental regulations.
Seeing all of this up close and talking to their employees also gave us some insight as to how we can all make our devices have a smaller footprint on the environment.
Here are 2 ways you can help make the world of electronics more sustainable:
Buy refurbished electronics when you can. We learned that the second hand or refurbished market for electronics is pretty underdeveloped in the US. New electronics are relatively cheap to make and most consumers prefer to buy new, this means that right now second hand electronics aren’t seen as valuable in the recycling supply chain, even if they still work fine!
Use Ridwell. While Evergreen IT Solutions gets a high volume of electronics from businesses, working with Ridwell gives them the ability to recycle electronics from individuals they wouldn’t otherwise be able to serve. Since Ridwell collects and consolidates electronics from many households into one convenient drop off, it lets a recycler like Evergreen IT Solutions handle more material with less effort. All recycling, but especially time-consuming electronics recycling is inefficient to do at a small scale, so this partnership is a real win for Ridwell, Evergreen IT Solutions, our members, and most importantly the environment!
We hope this post helps you feel good about where your electronics are going when you put them in a featured category bag or take them to a local e-recycler in your area. Since electronic devices and their cords & chargers are such a fixture of our lives these days, it's all of our responsibility to make sure they stay out of landfills. Every Ridwell member is working hard to make this happen, so thanks!