Target Markets

            Collection

In the US in excess of 90% of consumer waste is collected curbside, while less than 8% of e-waste for recycling is collected in that manner. The majority of e-waste (47%) is collected at free or pay drop off events, which are sponsored by processors, government organizations or non-profits. The next largest sector is state or waste management drop off points, where due to a legislative act it is now required as well as funded. There are several mail in programs for smaller items, as well as direct purchase programs designed to collect and resell working items. But without state mandated e-waste recycling laws this segment will face the same buy in challenge that plastic, glass, metal, and paper has battled, convenience. Until consumers can put there e-waste at the curb with the rest of their waste there will not be wide spread recycling of e-waste. Additionally since the original electronic product is usually expensive, consumers try and resell the used item or hold onto them even after it stops working. There are an estimated 99 million televisions in the US that are stored away in basements, garages, or spare rooms because the TV’s are either to large to dispose of or felt to have value and have thus not been disposed of.

The collection system of waste in the US is well developed and organized. The curbside recycling is that is “offered” as a part of that is also organized and developed, but only in locations where it is offered. Consumer good recycling is offered as a result of legislative action, and government (federal, state, and local) funding. E-waste is just beginning to see legislation pass that is offering the funding for the foundation for such a market. Switzerland, the global frontrunner in e-waste recycling, has added the added the producer of the electronic item to end of life responsibility. The Swiss system is based on a extended producer responsibility model, in legal and operational implementation. “This places both the physical as well as the financial responsibility of an environmentally sound disposal of end-of-life electronics with the manufacturers and importers of these products”(D. Sinha-Khetriwal et al. / Environmental Impact Assessment Review 25 (2005) 492–504). The US is still years away from a national extended producer responsibility model, but individual states are beginning to legislate this model on certain segments of the e-waste stream. Both Oregon and Washington have adapted a similar model and have implemented them on TV’s, computers, and monitors.  
Sorting and Pre-Processing

Following the collection of consumer e-waste there is an extensive and expense sorting and pre-processing period. With a TV or monitor containing 17 different types of plastic, glass, metal, printed circuit boards, wires, and a variety of other inputs and hazards, all built to stay together not for disassembly. Due to the complexities of the make-up of e-waste it should come at no surprise the challenges in this step. This pre-processing happens in a variety of subsets of manual and mechanical disassembly or a combination of the two.

The manual sorting of WEEE is usually the first step, as it takes individuals trained to test items for the level of functionality, a working TV or circuit board has more value resold whole or part than post processing. Additionally, once it is non-functioning it can be processed and recycled for its valuable materials. The dexterity offered by manual disassembly also offers the ability to insolate hazardous materials and high value components, which has environmental and cost benefits. But is also expensive to do in the US, which explains why the vast majority of the US WEEE is shipped to developing nations like China, India, and Africa for disassembly. This export has created serious social and environmental issues discussed later in this summary.

Automatic sorting, decreases some of these issues, is not as effect or effective in separating the mixed stream of e-waste into the valuable classes of materials. While this technology is increasing in effectiveness, it is also expensive and requires highly trained staff to manage. The automatic sorting is highly effective post e-waste passing through an automated material shredding.

Figure 1 (from escrapemeatlstoopreciousto ignorepdf)

The pre-processing separates the hazardous materials for disposal and liberates the valuable materials for recovery.  As shown in the above figure from research by the  Berlin University of Technology, pre-processing a complex product creates a variety of valuable materials streams.

Smelting

E-waste is made up of a variety of metals, plastics and other substances, about 66% of e-waste by weight consists of metals such as iron, copper, aluminum and gold (Babu et al., 2007). Depending upon the product up to 60 elements can be found in an individual product, which accounts for its metal contents being high than those of its source ores.

The most common materials found in WEEE by weight are iron and steel, followed by plastic, then nonferrous metals, and finally glass (Babu et al., 2007).

Once the e-waste is pre-processed separating out the larger and hazardous materials it is sorted into grades based on content. The materials are still intermixed and in need of processing. While there are many methods to process these materials including acid baths and bacterial leeching (an emerging environmental remediation), smelting is considered the most efficient and environmentally sound method. There is a large segment of e-waste that is processed in developing nations with little regard to environmental and human impacts, including open burns, open acid baths, and manual smelting. These social and environmental issues will be discussed later in this summary.

The use of an integrated smelter and refinery takes pre-processed materials and uses a metallurgical process to extract the various metals into a purified ore state. During this process heat and chemical agents are used to change the oxidation state of the e-waste materials and separate out the different metals. The plastics that are non-recyclable or extractable from the e-waste entering the smelting process can act as an additional energy source, the excess of which can be harnessed for energy production and as a heat source. One such smelter in Switzerland heats 10,000 homes with its excess smelting heat.  The off-gasses from the production can be sent through scrubbers, collecting more materials and the hazardous materials can also be collected from the rock gangue and slag.

As a result this process the environmental footprint of metals recovered from smelting is smaller than primary production of virgin ore (Babu et al., 2007).

Currently there are only five such smelters in the world for e-scrap, none of them in the United States (Audubon). Hence the reason that over 80% of the US e-waste is shipped abroad, granted only a fraction makes it to one of those facilities.

Overview

E-waste is a generic term for various forms of electric and electronic equipment that has reached its “productive” end. It is also referred to as electronic waste, e-scrap, or Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE). The authors use all these terms interchangeably in this paper.

Just as there is a tremendous market for electronic goods there is a market for its waste. Between 1994 and 2003 an estimated 500 million computers were retired (Matthews et al, 1997). These computers were estimated to have 3billion tonnes of plastics, 700 million tonnes of lead, 1,400 tons of cadmium and 300 tonnes of mercury, most of which is now sitting in landfills. This is before home computers became a personal standard, now it is estimated that there are 315 million personal computers in use, holding in excess of 4 billion pounds of plastics, 1billion pounds of lead and 2 millions pounds of cadmium (Widmer et al., 2005).

These great numbers of computers are a result of an accurate prediction on April 19, 1965 by Gordon Moore. He stated that the processing power in a computer doubles every two years (Audubon, 20??). This rapid depletion in comparative speed coupled with a marketing driven and socially driven want for cutting edge technology have altered the lifespan of a computer. In 1992 the average lifespan of a personal computer was 4 years, in 2005 while the product still works it is considered “obsolete” and have a lifespan of 2 years (National Safety Council, 1999, Widmer et al., 2005).

This market of WEEE is larger than just computers, the two main component of electronic waste is household appliances, known as white goods, which make up 43% and IT equipment, which accounts for 39% (_______,??). White goods predominate value is in the large scrap metal, but as more household appliances have processers in them the mixture value can lean toward the more expensive metals found in their printed circuit boards. These numbers vary depending upon product and will be addressed in more depth in a later section.

WEEE only accounts for 8% of the US waste stream, of this 80% is shipped overseas as e-waste, working products, or parts for products. This remaining 20% of consumer electronics is believed responsible for 40% of the lead in landfills and comprise 70% of the heavy metal contaminates in US landfills (Puckett & Smith, 2002). Not only is there value in not causing this pollution, the potential saving from future cleanup and savings from mining impacts, there is value in that “waste” that is being shipped over seas. A cell phone is made up of 23% metal by weight, worth about $0.60 per cell phone. Multiplying these values for precious metals times the amount of cell phones disposed of in 2006 (130million), One can see a $78million opportunity. This does not stop at cell phones, a ton of e-waste contains 17 times more gold than gold ore and 40 times more copper than copper ore.

The variety of toxic materials and value of reclaimable materials in e-waste make potential recovery not only profitable, but thought measuring the externalities of not, an environmental necessity. While e-waste processing is not a new field, it is still emerging as the infrastructure and habits of consumers are still in the early stages for widespread processing and recycling. On a consumer level, it is currently the fastest growing portion of municipal waste management, 3% to 5% of all waste (8% industrial) (______, ??). While e-waste has potential for refurbishment, resale, and reuse around 80% of WEEE is sent to landfill or incineration, according to Pike Research (2009). Of the remaining 20%, 10% is store or passed along to charities and 13% is reused or recycled (Pike Research, 2009). According to an anonymous source in the State of Oregon E-Cycles program, this 13% is inflated because e-waste is measured by weight and as the highly recycled but larger cathode tube TV’s become less common the recycling rate will fall below 10%. Currently there are is an estimated 35 million tons of e-waste annual with projections of over 60 million tons of e-waste in 2013 (Pike Research, 2009). Pike Research believes that the recycle rate, with government intervention and consumer economic incentives, could reach 50%. At a 45% recovery rate, that would be around 14 million tons of raw materials (Pike Research, 2009), right at 10% of the current virgin mined material according to the USGS. E-waste amounts to a tremendous market in its environmental remediation but also in its material contents.

Who Is Gonna Pay For My e-Waste?? Not Me!

Who Is Gonna Pay For My e-Waste?? Not Me!: "
Photo via shooting brooklyn

According to a new study by Pike Research, 76% of consumers are aware that one of the primary components for reducing e-waste is proper recycling. Rejoice! 76% of consumers can see the obvious!! Now the only trick to getting more of those consumers - indeed everyone - to act on recycling and being sticklers about ethical recycling methods by collectors and recyclers, is to figure out who foots the bill, because 37% of those consumers also think...Read the full story on TreeHugger

"

Is Gold Set To Hit $1,200 Within 24 Hours?

Is Gold Set To Hit $1,200 Within 24 Hours?: "

Early spot gold action indicates something is afoot in the gold market. Hitting an absolute record of $1,164 mere minutes ago, the momentum chasing algo funds are now in the picture, set to do to gold what they have been doing to the S&P futures and the SPY day after day for months now: if little volume will cause a move, look for the momentum chasers to crawl out of the woodwork. Yet the key factor determining today's gold price: Comex gold option expiration later today. Over the past several weeks, speculators have accumulated a 3 million ounce option position with a $1,200 strike. With gold flying on the tiniest gust of speculative mania, the possibility that we may see a 1,200 handle on gold seems less and less improbable.

This has HUGE implications for e-waste recovery. There is more gold in 1 ton of e-waste than 7 tons of gold ore. Let the price continue to rise!
"

A Wood Sound System That Does Both the Planet and Your iPod Good

A Wood Sound System That Does Both the Planet and Your iPod Good: "

After a 3-year stint as director of product development for innovation retailer Brookstone, David Laituri decided that it was time to strike out on his own. He remembers a pivotal get-together at a local Denny's with his future business partner, Tim Trzepacz, a former Brookstone colleague. 'Why is it that sound systems today are all cheap plastic boom boxes?' he remembers discussing with Trzepacz. 'It's like everyone is simply adding more plastic to an iPod.' The dialogue quickly moved from idea to cost to schedule to resources--and Vers was born.

Both innovators agreed that good design was critical but that Vers sound systems had to sound awesome as well. And finally, they wanted to make significant progress in sustainable design. They envisioned a sharply crafted, great-sounding audio line that would also reduce the environmental impact that the production of these products has caused.

For inspiration, Laituri harked back to a 1955 Zenith radio that he bought at a garage sale when he was 12. 'It still works, still looks great, and it's followed me everywhere. You can't say that about many electronic products today,' he says. 'It's the wood that makes you want to hang on to it and take care of it.'

WOOD IS GOODLaituri and Trzepacz knew that injection-molded plastic was environmentally insensitive, but it was audiophile friends who clued them into a dirty secret of plastic: it sounds lousy. 'With sound system design, every material has a resonant frequency,' Laituri explains. 'Plastic sounds 'tinny,' causing most manufacturers to artificially tweak the bass and treble try to hide the unwanted contribution that plastic makes. Wood, by comparison, has a resonant frequency similar to voices--it sounds warmer, more natural. Have you ever seen a plastic violin? There's a reason for that.'

While wood is material of choice for high-end speaker manufacturers, it can be a real challenge. Laituri and Trzepacz began investigating, climbing further and further up the supply chain and even visiting a stringed instrument factory to see what they could learn about mass-producing a hand-crafted wood acoustic product. They quickly realized this wouldn't be a one-stop, turn-key project; they would need to assemble their own team of manufacturing specialists.

Calling on their long list of friends in Asia, they sought out ways to not only meet their product specs but address their impact-reduction goals as well. They found their perfect fit in a factory that produced old-school wood speaker cabinets. 'With the introduction of iPod and all the plastic sound systems that followed it, their business was beginning to flatten out,' says Laituri. 'We worked with them to perfect the engineering of our cabinet--they had a lot of ideas to contribute.' Wood cabinets, they quickly learned, are more time-intensive to produce. It takes about seven days to craft a Vers cabinet compared to less than a minute for an injection-molded plastic enclosure.

TREES BEFORE THE FORESTEarly on, the wood cabinet manufacturer introduced Laituri and Trzepacz to their wood material suppliers. The ideal acoustic construction for their cabinet would be a hardwood veneer over a medium density fiberboard core--similar to ultra-high-end speakers. Local eucalyptus and pine plantations (essentially tree farms) supplied the wood material in the fiberboard. The fast-growing trees were regularly harvested and replanted. After a bit of research, the manufacturers learned that their speaker-makers were using hardwood from the U.S.--from family-owned mills, several of which were more than 100 years old. These mills owned and managed their their own walnut and cherry forest stocks but pulled 80% of their wood from trees removed for development or felled by storms. With the addition of locally-sourced bamboo veneer, they were convinced that their wood was coming from sustainably-managed stock.

'Since we do a lot with wood, we've decided to keep our environmental efforts tied closely to trees, their lifetime carbon-sequestering capability (1.5 million lbs of CO2 per tree) as well as their amazing renewability,' says Laituri. 'We can transfer a lot of knowledge to our customers very quickly that way.' With that in mind, customers can elect to plant a tree on the Vers checkout page to offset the lifetime carbon produced powering four Vers systems over their lifetime. For every tree a customer plants, Vers matches it 1:1. A surprising 18% of customers have chosen to plant a tree; one customer planted 20.

This year, they decided to attempt a 100:1 tree-replanting effort. Having audited wood use (including process scrap) from the very beginning, Vers also came up with a conservative average 'yield' for a tree in terms of hardwood veneer and lumber. And they've partnered with the Arbor Day Foundation and the U.S. Forest Service for a unique new program. By the end of this year, Laituri estimates they will have replanted close to 1,000 trees between all of their programs. 'We're excited to be able to put back more then we use,' he says. 'A lot more.'

RECYCLE, REPAIR, REPEATAnother concern of Vers was end-of-life electronics recycling. Many consumer electronics companies have introduced take-back programs lately, but Vers wanted take it to the next level. 'So we assumed in integrated take-back program was a given,' says Laituri. They chose to not only take back a Vers system at the end of its life but to recycle customers' unwanted iPod sound system as well, rewarding them with a $30 discount coupon towards a new Vers system. All of the waste is then recycled under the Basel Action Network accords, assuring that these materials will not be exported to developing countries--an ugly problem with consumer electronics waste.

From their hands-on sustainable material selection to responsible e-waste recycling, the wide impact that Vers is having on the world of consumer electronics may be relatively small due to their start-up size, but to Laituri and Trzepacz it's simply part of their founding mission. 'Our size doesn't carry much weight with a factory; we're not always able to make the changes we would like, as fast as they should happen. Large companies like Sony or Motorola can make larger changes faster, and if what we are doing prods or inspires them to do more, great--we welcome more partners.' says Laituri. 'Making a difference is far more challenging--and rewarding--then simply making a product.'

If you have a design and sustainability story to share, let us know about it! Check out the brand new Designers Accord Web site. And follow us on Twitter @designersaccord to hear what the Designers Accord community is thinking about.

Browse more Designers Accord Case Studies

"

America Recycles Day: The Value Of Proper E-Waste Recycling

America Recycles Day: The Value Of Proper E-Waste Recycling: "
Curbside TV trash. Image credit:PhillyNewsBlog, Scene On The Road, T. Gralish.

This Sunday, November 15th, marks the 12th annual America Recycles Day, a nationally recognized day for Americans to recycle and purchase recycled products. While the global waste stream continues to grow, current trends indicate that electronic waste (e-waste) is the fastest growing commodity within the waste stream. In fact, volumes are growing at more than three times the rate of other wastes and have doubled in the last d...Read the full story on TreeHugger"

Interpol Launches Global Operation Against E Waste Exporters

Interpol Launches Global Operation Against E Waste Exporters: "

A new week begins in trade2save’s new office! We start this chilly Monday with exciting news announced from recycling website “letsrecycle.com” regarding the global fight against ewaste crimes. As a major step forward in this battle, Interpol has begun international action to face illegal e waste exportation/dumping. While this new initiative involves many countries’ agencies and commitments, the UK’s Environmental Agency (EA) will be in charge of the operation.

Chairman of the EA, Chris Smith, already has quite a track record in the fight against e-waste, as the EA is currently involved in 8 investigations regarding illegal e waste exporters and has made 12 arrests, making him a more than qualified leader for this international effort.At the moment the new Interpol e waste force will focus on countries already subject to much dumping such as Ghana, Nigeria, China, etc. in order to prevent further illegal waste.

This is great news, and trade2save is excited to hear that this major international problem is getting an appropriate major international response. Trade2save has faith in the EA to lead this new task force as it’s previous endeavors have received recognition and praise even from out own Environmental Protection Agency (which is also to be included in the Interpol force). Hopefully with more investigation, pressure, and legal action, e waste criminals will punished for their hazardous, toxic crimes against the environment and humanity.

While this may seem like our daily plug, trade2save encourages our readers not to wait idly for government agencies to fight our battles for us! Make sure you do you part and recycle your ewaste at reputable recyclers (do your research and pay the fee!) Furthermore, if your electronics are still usable, give them to somebody who can use them or sell them! By lowering electronic product demand we can all do our part in this e waste fight by lowering the amount of waste produced. While we clean up our wasteful habits, Interpol can clean up the criminals who take advantage of our old gadgets.

"