How are 6 million pounds of electronics recycled? – Technology Magazine


Industrial shredders have the capacity to reuse up to 6,000,000 pounds each month in electronic waste. Through their process of recycling metal, The electronic waste they are receiving is mostly from office equipment like laptops, computers, and phones.

They also recycle however they try to reuse or recycle it prior to repurposing it. The scale first is used to weight the product and then it is tagged with a digital code. Reuse on one side, and recycle the other. This is the way that the recycling facility was built.

In the “reuse” part it is the manual removal internal electronic components like processors, motherboards as well as screens. The components are cleaned as well as checked for correct functionality, and then sent back to inventory, to be sold for a second time. Large hard drives that are removed from servers or computers are protected by high-security security with restricted access. The hard drives are cleaned off their contents prior to being sold.

In cases where electronics aren’t reused, they are prepared to be recycled on the opposite end of the electronics as well as a the metal recycling facility. The first step is “de-manufacturing” can be described as the process of “depackaging” dangerous materials, and “de-packaging”. It is essential that hazardous materials be removed before the electronics go to the shredder as they could rupture or cause damage to the surrounding environment.

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