Benefits and Limits of Recycling E-waste

Recycling e-waste means sending discarded digital devices to a recycling plant where their materials and components are separated so the useful ones can be recovered. It is usually better than sending devices to landfill, but it still has an impact of its own.

Benefits

Every device contains materials that took mining, fuel and energy to produce. Copper in cables, aluminium in cases and small traces of gold on circuit boards are all worth recovering. Many of these materials are non-renewable, meaning the supply in the ground is limited and will not be replaced. Recovering them conserves resources and reduces the need to extract new raw materials, so there is less mining damage and less energy spent refining ore. Recycling also reduces the volume of e-waste sent to landfill, which saves land and lowers the chance of harmful substances escaping into soil and water. Making a new product from recycled metal usually takes less energy and causes less pollution than starting from fresh raw materials.

Limits

Recycling is not impact-free. Collecting devices from homes and schools, driving them to a recycling plant and running the shredding and separation machinery all use energy, often from burning fossil fuels. Processing can also create hazardous waste, because parts such as the backlights in older screens and the solder on circuit boards contain substances that must be removed and handled carefully, or they can harm people and the environment.

For example, a college replaces 120 old desktop computers. The metal recovered from their cases and cables saves ore from being mined, but the fuel for two van trips and the plant's electricity are part of the cost. Recycling is still worth doing because the savings are usually much larger than these costs, but it reduces the damage rather than removing it completely.