Electronics stewardship is beneficial to the community and provides a way to reduce overall consumption of electronic materials protecting the entire globe’s environment. Electronic waste recycling is one of the most important investments that consumers can take to support reducing this waste and improving the overall health of the planet. It’s not necessarily complex, but changing opinions and moving towards better strategies for electronic waste recycling to ensure its success.
Necessary Benefits of Electronic Waste Recycling
The Consumer Electronics Association found that each American household utilizes about 28 different products, including personal computers, smartphones, televisions, and more, as noted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Overall, that means that Americans alone generated 2.7 million tons of electronic goods (in 2013), which is about one percent of all municipal solid waste generation. In 2019, this figure had grown to an estimated 53.6 million tons of e-scraps, making electronic waste recycling critically important.
In short, electronic waste is a growing problem, but one that can be improved with new strategies for electronic waste recycling. Making the change to better recycling can offer a range of benefits to consumers, the community, and the planet itself.
It Creates Green Jobs
The move towards electronic waste recycling creates an overall more sustainable industry. At the same time, it also creates new opportunities, including growing resources and new jobs. Many people want to work for companies that care and support the environment, making green jobs more in demand than ever.
Productive Reuse with Electronic Waste Recycling
The materials used to create electronics are in short supply. That is not just because of political strife but a significant demand for limited resource material. In short, it is critical to get as much out of all electronic materials as possible, as there is a limited amount of it easily accessible. Electronic waste recycling makes access to these materials easier.
Electronic Waste Recycling Reduces Pollution
One of the key reasons to invest in electronic waste recycling is that it helps to protect the environment by reducing pollution. In the creation of any electronic device, there is a lot of manufacturing involved, and most steps in the manufacturing processes are not only complex but also damaging to the planet itself. By recycling electronics, fewer need to be manufactured, and that means less pollution is generated.
Protection of Valuable Resources
One of the reasons electronics are expensive is the rare earth minerals needed to make them. The need to remove these materials from the ground impacts the planet. There are a limited amount of them present, and there are limited virgin resources available left untapped. With electronic waste recycling, there is less demand to remove these materials from the earth, and that helps to preserve them.
Electronic Waste Recycling and Product Manufacturing
To produce many of these electronics, the manufacturing process has to use heavy machinery. That machinery requires intense use of energy, which also pulls from the planet’s limited resources. By utilizing materials from electronic waste recycling with electronics already manufactured, there is less energy used in the manufacturing of products.
Green Electronics Have Fewer Toxic Outcomes
When choosing which products to invest in, many consumers don’t think twice about what is in their electronics. But green electronics – those that utilize electronic waste recycling – have fewer toxic aspects to them. For example, e-waste can impact the human body in many ways thanks to the presence of various components like:
- Mercury
- Lithium
- Barium
- Polybrominated flame retardants
- Cadmium
While you may not notice or experience any negative impact from the use of these materials in your day-to-day life that are obvious, over time, constant exposure can lead to numerous negative outcomes. Why have dangerous materials exposed to you that can cause birth defects, heart damage, and kidney failure?
There are numerous additional benefits to electronic waste recycling that many people simply don’t know exist. The key here is to look at what happens when these products are used:
- They are easily upgraded and disassembled.
- They do not need or use a lot of consumer packaging, which protects the environment
- They are more energy efficient – depending on the Energy Star label on them
- They tend to be more affordable overall
- In some situations, recycled materials can be used in low-income communities to provide a low-cost way to access modern technology
Many times, recycled or green electronics are just as good as a new, out-of-the-box model. That is dependent on the specs of them. Newer models may offer more features, but the upgrade differences year to year from many manufacturers in items like smartphones and TVs is rather minimal and hard to notice. In other words, they tend to be easily incorporated into a person’s life and provide a quality function to them.
Recycling Is Not Hard to Do
One interesting statistic from the International Telecommunications Union shares that just 20% of all e-waste is actually collected and then properly recycled. That creates a huge opportunity to take full advantage of these benefits of recycling. For many people, the lack of knowledge of the benefits or the lack of education on how to recycle products is what clearly creates a limitation. If more people know about recycling e-waste and how easy it can be, they may be more readily willing to do so.It does not have to be difficult to implement an electronic waste recycling solution. Turn to evTerra to learn more about how we can help you. Request a quote to learn more about the services we offer and the benefits you can expect.
