The Importance of Recycling in Today’s World, MTBC Newsletter April 2009

The Importance of Recycling in Today’s World, MTBC Newsletter April 2009

Did you know tons of electronic equipment is being dumped on a daily basis and handled improperly causing many, many risks? Stored data on these computers can be recovered by someone else, not to mention the extremely toxic affect on the environment once in the earth’s surface. The majority of hard drives contain recoverable data including company financials, credit card numbers, medical records, and sensitive e-mails. There are hundreds of millions of obsolete computers in the U.S. today. Old technology is the fastest growing refuse problem in the world with an annual growth rate of 3 to5 percent. Do we want to be knee deep in monitors and circuit boards?
One of the trends causing a terrible hazard condition for the earth is third world dumping. Countries like Asia and Africa do not have the infrastructure to handle used, recycled electronics. There, labor is cheap and environmental regulations are lax. Electronics are dumped in a hazardous manner causing severe pollution, spoiled drinking water and grave health problems. Did you know that landfills are a major source of methane, which is a potent greenhouse gas?
Does your company want the public embarrassment of not complying? How about the threat of expensive litigation for non-compliance? Today, companies can face hefty fines and lawsuits as a result of new e-waste regulations. And numerous new bills are already in the works through legislation. Municipalities are now taking the lead to stem a costly and polluting deluge of high-tech trash. Mandatory state-wide solutions such as “producer take-back” initiatives that hold manufacturers financially responsible for disposing their electronic products once they are worn out are on the rise.
The best product lifecycle management programs re-purpose end-of-life, surplus and obsolete electronic components back to operation for reuse while observing proprietary concerns of the manufacturers. To extend the lifetime of a product is the best way to save energy and keep our landfills clean. Companies need a critical supply chain partner that is certified and meets the particular needs of its customers.
What is considered e-waste? It includes computer processing units, monitors, televisions, printers, scanners, copy and fax machines, phones and electronic game units. Putting these products into the wrong hands - such as low-wage workers in third world countries can mean unsafe handling of the toxic materials that can spell disaster. Restrictions on the use of potentially hazardous materials, such as lead, in electronic products are spreading worldwide. In response, electronics manufacturers have had to spend substantial time, effort and money to prepare to comply with applicable legislation.Granted, the cost of recycling these products is a very expensive proposition. But for instance, computer-maker Dell recently bowed to formally support producer take-back legislation nationwide after aggressive pressure from environmental groups. By 2009, Dell expects to have taken back 275 million pounds of its product, according to a company spokesman. So the recycling business is going to keep growing by leaps and bounds. Worldwide, the e-waste and e-recycling market will grow from$21.8 billion in 2006 and reach $30.2 billion in 2008.
Recycled cell phones are playing a critical role in the spread of wireless communications across the developing world, where land lines can be costly or unavailable. There is a rapidly increasing global market for refurbished cellphones with more than 2 billion subscribers in the world. With Americans trading in their phones for fancier models every 18 months on average, the supply of used but perfectly functional phones is enormous. Recyclers find about 60% of the phones that come in are reusable and the rest are used for parts or material recovery.
So if we are diligent and creative with recycled products, it will have an enormous healthy benefit on the earth and all mankind for future years. Companies need to make plans now to take care of the situation before stricter laws and expensive costs catch up with them. They should team up with a certified partner that recycles all types of commercial electronic equipment and material, including all information technology and telecommunications infrastructure, mainframes, PCs, switches, routers, interactive voice response units, automatic call distributors, monitors, printers, fax machines, modems, cellular phones, board level components and various other types of plastic and metal. Going green will soon no longer just merely be a choice. It will be a mandatory responsibility for every company.
BCD Electro is a technology recycling solutions provider employing environmentally sensitive methods for recycling technology equipment, integrated circuits and electronic components to meet the needs of businesses. As an ISO 9001 and 14001 certified company, we have created product lifecycle management programs specializing in re-use and re-distribution since 1979. BCD Electro’s focus is repurposing end-of-life products, surplus and obsolete electronic components back to operations for reuse, remarketing electronic components to generate extra revenue and recycling electronic components into new product. For more information on how your company is complying and what resources are available to you, please contact Bob Harris at bharris@bcdelectro.,com, or 214 630 4298 .Bob Harris, PresidentBCD ElectroDallas TX