If recycling in general, and of electronics in particular, is our objective, why is our record to date so bad?
Like all important issues, there is no simple answer to this question.
Some terminology – all electronic equipment (mobile phones, computers, TVs, etc) that is no longer needed we will call e-waste.
A starting point is that while more than two-thirds of people say they want to recycle more, many continue to put unwanted electronics in the rubbish bin. Most of this is probably due to a lack of knowledge and a lack of understanding of where to recycle. The fact that it is inconvenient just makes matters worse. Misinformation and confusion are critical factors to overcome. Bad habits and beliefs take time to untangle. So much work needs to be done to educate the general population.
Let’s look at some statistics first:
- It has been reported that the world created 62 million tonnes of e-waste in 2022 and this looks like hitting 82 million tonnes by 2030. The biggest generators of e-waste are China, USA, Japan, India and Germany.
- In Australia we created 521,000 tonnes of e-waste in 2019.
- While this may not seem much in world terms, Australia is the fourth highest generator of e-waste per capita in the world. So we have a serious problem.
- It is claimed that only 20% of global e-waste is collected and properly recycled. Of the remaining 80%, 4% is thrown into residual waste. But we don’t even know where the remaining 76% of waste goes! That’s a big chunk of our problem.
Having said all that, recycling electronics is a complex process. This is mainly because electronics have multiple materials that need to be sorted and recycled separately. This process is extremely inefficient and so very expensive. There are also health and safety concerns – lead, mercury, lithium and cadmium are common components. These products affect nearly every system in the human body. And to make this even worse, there are some materials that simply cannot be recycled at present – LCD televisions, computer screens and old TVs for example.
In Australia the states have set up collection points for e-waste.
Many see this as the solution – out of sight, out of mind. There are three main pathways for recycling e-waste in Australia – landfill, metal scrapping and component recycling.
Then there is the fact that not all e-waste recyclers are the same. The worst examples are those that export this waste to developing countries where they cause untold damage to the environment and workers. The countries with the unwanted record of being the largest e-waste dumpsites in the world are Ghana and China. You might remember that a few years ago now China refused to take any more of Australia’s waste – people were not happy.
It must be pointed out however, that none of these facts detracts from the very real benefits that recycling can generate. Some benefits to consider are:
- If we recycled just one million cell phones, it would reduce greenhouse gas emissions equal to taking 1,368 cars off the road. Remember that Apple alone sells over 250 million phones a year.
- This same one million cell phones recycled will yield 300kg of silver, 14,000kg of copper and 30kg of gold.
- Recycling one million laptops saves energy equivalent to 3,500 homes in a year.
The list goes on, so a lot of good can come from recycling – provided it is done properly.
Now it is time to take up another argument – recycling e-waste, is not a panacea for the e-waste problem. Many people like to pretend that it is, because that would show how “green” we are. Because this is a very important point, let’s look at it further.
But before starting, it must be said again that recycling e-waste is a very good thing – it just isn’t the complete solution to our problems.
The sheer volumes of e-waste (that continue to grow at 4% per year) are impossible to cope with. A UN report points out that while there is an increased focus on recycling today compared to the past, the efforts to sustainably reclaim used devices simply can’t keep pace with the massive consumption rates for new devices.
Let’s look at just one example. Apple has made a lot of publicity around their specially developed robot capable of dismantling for recycling purposes 1.2 million iPhones per year. While this is technically very impressive, it must be remembered that in that same year Apple sold 250 million iPhones. So their very impressive recycling efforts are just a drop in the bucket.
Just think about another fact. Recycling is first and foremost a removal from circulation. In other words, it is an implicit incentive to produce and buy new. This point is compounded by the short life cycles of many new devices, with manufacturers rushing out new models to eager consumers. Even Apple concedes that 77% of the carbon footprint of their electronics comes from their manufacture. In other words, the environmental impact of replacing a device, even if it is recycled properly after, remains significant.
Only the extension of the life of a device currently in circulation, through their maintenance, refurbishment and reuse can have a meaningful effect on their environmental impact.
One of the emerging trends today is working on exactly this issue. This is the move away from ownership of products which need replacing to the introduction of a managed service. Probably the most visible example of this is in the music industry. Who these days actually purchases CDs? Today people stream whatever music they like from any number of service providers. No products are actually produced and so recycling is not an issue.
Texcel’s service offerings fall directly into this concept. Nexus and 36o by Texcel are managed services that enable you to receive complete environmental monitoring data without the need to own any of the monitoring instrumentation or software. A component of these services is Texcel’s annual recalibration and maintenance program that effectively gives this equipment unlimited life.
