January 11, 2009
E-Waste

We recycled a number of old computers and printers yesterday in an event sponsored by Tekserve and the Lower East Side Ecology Center. I trust those folks to choose recyclers wisely but I certainly did not check where it was all going.

Slashdot | The Scope of US E-Waste

Update: from the LESEC website FAQ:

What happens to the computers that people bring to this event?
Computer equipment dropped off during our events is loaded into trucks and transported by the our contracted electronics recycling company (Sims Recycling Solutions) to their facility. At the recycling facility all information from the hard drive is erased and the equipment is evaluated and tested for reuse potential. Electronics are then de-manufactured into component parts and recycled. Certain easily reusable components such as memory chips get harvested for reuse or refurbished for resale.

De-manufacturing involves separating equipment into 4 major categories:
1) Plastic
2) Circuit boards
3) Cathode ray tubes (CRT*) glass
4) Scrap metal

Plastic and scrap metal go to respective recyclers. Circuit boards and CRT glass go to metal/lead smelters.

*(A cathode ray tube – CRT – is the video display component of TV’s & monitors, which has lead added to the glass to protect the user from x-rays generated in the CRT)

Is any of the recycled material sent overseas?
No. We share your concern about dumping electronic waste on develping countries. Therefore we require that our vendors recycle all collected materials in the US and provide us with documentation about their down stream vendors. We audit this information to confirm validity.

Posted by Dave at January 11, 2009 11:03 AM