TerraThread is a centralized resource for practical people who want to know about and participate in eco-friendly activities as part of their everyday lives.
Born out of a curiousity regarding electronics recycling, TerraThread founder LaRae Marsik developed an educational e-waste recycling rally program that spurred ongoing interest from people looking for answers beyond a single community event.
In the spirit of full disclosure, TerraThread is not designed to be a forum for the zealous or the uber-passionate. This is for regular folk who enjoy many of the comforts that fossil fuels and modern engineering provide, yet we strive to do “green” things when we can to make our impact on the environment a bit less damaging.
TerraThread provides an open forum for questions, answers, information and dialog about easy, realistic eco-efforts that are available to all of us.
Hi there,
The town I cover (Oak Lawn, IL) for our local paper is hosting an eWaste collection day. I was looking for a little insight as to what happens after the electronics are collected.
I understand they’re not headed to a landfill, but where, exactly, do they go? Is there any environmental research or case studies about the benefits or potential drawbacks of these programs?
Thanks,
Casey
Casey — Much depends on the e-waste recycler that is handling the collection for Oak Lawn. Demanufacturing is usually the first process undergone by the collected recyclables — taking the televisions, VCRs, computers, etc. apart and sorting the matierals into main groups. Beyond demanufacturing, which is a highly manual process, some waste processesors ship their collected waste to a smelter to break down the pieces into their core elements. Other processors handle their e-waste on-sight, breaking the cathode ray tube (CRT) of television sets and monitors down into metal, leaded glass, plastic, etc. and handling the full breakdown within their own facilities — disposing properly of the toxic materials like mecury, lead, cadmium and others through approved and highly controlled biohazard methods. The benefits of responsible recycling programs are numerous, but handling e-waste is trickier than other recyclables and the program itself needs to be solid. Some are and some are not. Even some e-cyclers who think that their process is responsible discover that their shipping destination isn’t handling waste properly (see the 60 minutes story in another TerraThread entry). The Basel Action Network is a pretty extreme group, but they do take pains to certify certain recyclers who can verify the chain of custody of each waste group, and prove at all levels that they are compliant with the best known standards available (see http://www.gryxrecycles.com to get a sense for how a Basel-certified group does it). The best way to verify the process locally, at the moment, is to talk to the local recycler and ask them how their process works — get a feel for how much control they really have and how much they know about the final destinations of the waste they collect. I’d be happy to talk with you further and point you in the right direction for main questions if you’d like — my office phone is 303-471-4511, email is larae@octoberstrategies.com. As a communications person, I learned more about this complicated issue than I ever thought I’d know, and I think I’ve asked most of the layman’s questions to get some pretty interesting straight answers. Let me know if you’d like to dig deeper. Best, LM