Tag: Electronics Recycling

How to Recycle a Laptop
How to Recycle a Laptop

There are many reasons you may want to dispose of your old laptop; maybe the battery life is lagging, it isn’t working properly, or you are just ready to try out the newest technologies of the season. No matter the reason, it is important to consider the increasing upgrade cycle of electronics and its effect on the environment.  However, knowing how to recycle a laptop can be difficult. Laptops contain valuable materials including gold, silver, and platinum. They also contain dangerous heavy metals and hazardous chemicals. Recycling your laptop ensures that hazards are handled safely and resources are preserved. E-waste recycling programs follow local recycling regulations to protect the community, while also ensuring that your private data is secure. Prepare […]

Cell Phone Destruction through Ship N Shred
Cell Phone Destruction through Ship N Shred

Old cell phones pose a risk of exposing personal and business information. Cell phones hold lots of sensitive information including login credentials, account numbers, contacts, and other data. Destroying your old phones is the only way to ensure that your data remains private. Cell phone companies and manufacturers may offer trade-in benefits for old phones, but often the benefit is not worth the risk. Factory resets have been proven ineffective at completely clearing your data. A study done at Cambridge University found that you can retrieve a phone’s master code 80% of the time after a factory reset. Hackers can use the code to access all of your “deleted” information to steal financial data and commit identity theft.  Why Should […]

How Is E-Waste Recycled?
How is e waste recycled? Electronics Recycling Finder can help

Electronics play a huge role in our daily lives. As soon as you wake up, it is likely that you check your phone or peek at your smartwatch before you have even get out of bed. As our dependence on electronics grows, so does the waste stream left in its wake. Electronic waste (e-waste) is the fastest-growing waste stream in the world. The demand for devices continues to increase as the lifespan of each device shortens, sending millions of pounds of toxic waste into landfills. Chemicals from e-waste seep into the ground and pollute the air, causing dangerous health and environmental consequences. E-waste recycling protects humans and wildlife from the damage of e-waste. It conserves natural resources, saves energy, and […]

How to Recycle Old Cell Phones
How to Recycle Old Cell Phones

It’s no surprise that technology evolves at a rapid rate. As a result, we frequently find ourselves upgrading to newer and more advanced cell phones. While it’s exciting to have the latest gadgets, it’s equally important to consider what happens to our old devices. Discarding them in the trash can harm the environment. Unfortunately, it was estimated that 5.3 billion phones were thrown away in 2022. Knowing how to recycle old cell phones is a responsible and eco-friendly choice.  Before you retire your trusty smartphone for the latest model, let’s explore the path of responsible disposal and recycling. Your actions can make a substantial difference in preserving our planet for generations to come. In this blog, we’ll explore why recycling […]

How to Reduce E-Waste: Easy Steps to Follow
how to reduce e-waste at home, in the office, and raise awareness

Each year, the world produces mountains of e-waste, weighing in at over 60 million tons a year. As we continue to incorporate technology into every facet of our lives, that number continues to grow. As a result, figuring out how we reduce that e-waste becomes more and more important as the years go on.  Increasing the urgency to reduce our e-waste output is the toxicity of the equipment as it decomposes. Most electronics contain toxic chemicals and elements like cadmium, mercury, and other rare earth elements that can poison the soil, water, and air around their disposal site.  Recycling e-waste helps prevent this but reducing e-waste can also benefit the environment and, often, your wallet.  How to Reduce E-Waste at […]

IT Recycling for Security and E-Waste Reduction
office computers for it recycling

A company’s IT department is responsible for maintaining technology through its whole lifecycle. This commonly includes troubleshooting onboarding, technology setup, or, too often, asking if a coworker had restarted their computer to see if it solved the problem. However, the end of a piece of technology’s life cycle can not be solved with a simple restart. That requires recycling, and IT is often tasked with ensuring the safe disposal of the technology and its data.  The Importance of IT Recycling  While individuals should recycle their computers, phones, and other electronics to help reduce e-waste, the scale of the job for IT departments makes an effective recycling process even more crucial. When upgrading or replacing old systems, this often means hundreds […]

How to Recycle a Laptop Battery
recycle laptop battery featured image electronics recycling finder

Laptop batteries have improved in leaps and bounds in the past couple of decades. They last longer, charge faster, and hold on to their charge a lot longer. However, they’re not perfect, and eventually, every laptop battery will wear out, and you will need to recycle it.  Laptop batteries are filled with valuable materials, such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel, that can be reused and repurposed when you dispose of them properly. Explore not only the environmental benefits but also the practical steps you can take to ensure you’re recycling old laptop batteries while reducing your carbon footprint. Where to Recycle a Laptop Battery No matter where you are, you should not put an old laptop battery in your regular […]

The Current State of E-Waste Recycling Technology
the smelting part of e-waste recycling technology

The amount of E-waste the world produces a year is a staggering 50 million tons a year, and only growing. While that’s only a fraction of the overall waste the world generates, it makes up the lion’s share of toxic waste. As such, it’s more important than ever to produce effective and efficient e-waste recycling technology.  Much of the technology we use now involves older techniques, converted to e-waste recycling. Smelting down metal, using acidic solutions to break down components, shredding, and magnetizing. However, as the e-waste problem grows, so too are the solutions to it. Novel ideas are being pioneered to recover as much as possible from our discarded technology. Types of E-Waste Recycling Technology in Use  Pyrometallurgical Recycling  […]

Battery Recycling Protocols
types of batteries and their recycling processes featured image

Batteries help power the modern world. They’re everywhere, from cell phones, to laptops, to cars, and the list goes on and on. This technology, which is as old, or older, than the United States, keeps our technological revolution going. But batteries have lifespans, and if we want to protect our environment and use our resources sustainably, we’ll have to make sure battery recycling goes as mainstream as the cell phones they power.  Batteries, like the devices and technologies they power, are made from many different materials. Some contain lithium, some cobalt, some mercury – the list encompasses much of the periodic table. Unfortunately, many of these resources are limited, and some of them are toxic to the environment after they’re […]

The Ethical Issues Surrounding E-Waste Disposal

The world produces roughly 50 million tons of e-waste a year, and the number continues to grow. This waste generally falls into the toxic category, making its disposal more difficult than just tossing it into a landfill. However, a landfill somewhere is still where it often ends up. This creates significant ethical issues surrounding the disposal of e-waste.  How E-Waste Disposal Creates Ethical Issues  While shipping e-waste to poorer countries technically goes against the Basel Convention, which was signed by a number of countries, including the United States, the practice remains common. Countries will ship old or malfunctioning technology to poorer countries, often in West Africa or Southeast Asia.  Once the technology arrives there, it follows a few different paths, […]