#waste electronics recycling

[e-waste-recycling-in-mumbai]

Eco-Cycle Transforming Tech Trash into Tomorrow's Treasures

E-waste recycling and disposal play a vital role in mitigating the environmental and health hazards associated with electronic waste. By properly managing e-waste, we can prevent harmful materials like lead, mercury, and cadmium from contaminating soil, water, and air. Recycling old electronics allows us to recover valuable metals and components, reducing the need for virgin materials and conserving natural resources. Additionally, e-waste recycling helps alleviate the strain on landfill space, as electronic devices are often bulky and non-biodegradable. Moreover, responsible disposal practices ensure that hazardous substances are safely contained and processed, minimizing risks to human health and the environment. Overall, e-waste recycling and disposal contribute to a more sustainable approach to electronic consumption, promoting resource conservation, pollution prevention, and a healthier planet for future generations.

[reasonsforhope]

"Scientists have developed a way to dramatically reduce the cost of recycling certain electronic waste by using whey protein.

Their method allows for the easy recovery of gold from circuit boards at a cost of energy and materials amounting to 50 times less than the price of the gold they recover—these are the numbers that big business likes to see.

Indeed, the potential for scalability depends on this sort of cost savings, something traditional e-waste recycling methods just can’t achieve.

Professor Raffaele Mezzenga from ETH Zurich has found that whey protein, a byproduct of dairy manufacturing, can be used to make sponges that attract trace amounts of ionized gold.

Electronic waste contains a variety of valuable metals, including copper, cobalt, and gold. Despite gold’s public persona as being either money or jewelry, thousands of ounces of gold are used in electronics every year for its exceptional conductive properties.

Mezzenga’s colleague Mohammad Peydayesh first “denatured whey proteins under acidic conditions and high temperatures, so that they aggregated into protein nanofibrils in a gel,” writes the ETH Zurich press. “The scientists then dried the gel, creating a sponge out of these protein fibrils.”

The next step was extracting the gold: done by tossing 20 salvaged motherboards into an acid bath until the metals had dissolved into ionized compounds that the sponge began attracting.

Removing the sponge, a heat treatment caused the gold ions to aggregate into 22-carat gold flakes which could be easily removed.

“The fact I love the most is that we’re using a food industry byproduct to obtain gold from electronic waste,” Mezzenga says. In a very real sense, he observes, the method transforms two waste products into gold. “You can’t get much more sustainable than that!” ...

However the real dollar value comes from the bottom line—which was 50 times more than the cost of energy and source materials. Because of this, the scientists have every intention of bringing the technology to the market as quickly as possible while also desiring to see if the protein fibril sponge can be made of other food waste byproducts.

E-waste is a quickly growing burden in global landfills, and recycling it requires extremely energy-intensive machinery that many recycling facilities do not possess.

The environmental value of the minerals contained within most e-waste comes not only from preventing the hundreds of years it takes for them to break down in the soil, but also from the reduction in demand from new mining operations which can, though not always, significantly degrade the environments they are located in.

[Note: Absolutely massive understatement, mining is incredibly destructive to ecosystems. Mining is also incredibly toxic to human health and a major cause of conflict, displacement, and slavery globally.]

Other countries are trying to incentivize the recycling of e-waste, and are using gold to do so. In 2022, GNN reported that the British Royal Mint launched an electronically traded fund (ETF) with each share representing the value of gold recovered from e-waste as a way for investors to diversify into gold in a way that doesn’t support environmentally damaging mining.

The breakthrough is reminiscent of that old fairy tale of Rumpelstiltskin who can spin straw into gold. All that these modern-day, real-life alchemists are doing differently is using dairy and circuit boards rather than straw."

-via Good News Network, July 19, 2024

[materialsscienceandengineering]

The robotics industry should be creating robots that could be reprogrammed and repurposed for other tasks once its life span is completed, University of Bristol and University of West England researchers have advised. The study, published by Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems, aims to challenge individuals working in the robotics industry and in academia to note the effect that their early work can have on the long-term use of a robotic system. With 80% of a robots environmental impact decided during the initial design phases of a product life-cycle, experts argue it is essential that researchers, designers and manufacturers understand the limitations of recycling an electronic product at the end of its life, and instead consider the other options possible to move products and the industry towards a sustainable life-cycle.

Read more.

[mindblowingscience]

Transforming base materials into gold was one of the elusive goals of the alchemists of yore. Now Professor Raffaele Mezzenga from the Department of Health Sciences and Technology at ETH Zurich has accomplished something in that vein. He has not of course transformed another chemical element into gold, as the alchemists sought to do. But he has managed to recover gold from electronic waste using a byproduct of the cheesemaking process. Electronic waste contains a variety of valuable metals, including copper, cobalt, and even significant amounts of gold. Recovering this gold from disused smartphones and computers is an attractive proposition in view of the rising demand for the precious metal.

Continue Reading.

[dullahandyke]

Fun exciting plural moment this morning my headmates were mad at me bcos they wanted me to get up but I kept snoozing my alarm for several hours. Not actually that mad but I did wake up properly and then LOL at the memory of someone going WAKE UP DIPSHIT while i turned off my 8am alarm and went back to sleep

[ewasteblog]

E-Waste 101

(Image by Morten B.)

E-waste, simply put, is short for electronic waste. The U.S. EPA synonymies e-waste with "e-scrap" and "end-of-life electronics" as well. Typical examples of e-waste include computers, electrical equipment, phones, and headphones.

But why the separate title? Why can't e-waste just be labeled as regular waste? Well, because most electronics have two unique attributions: being very bad for the environment, and being incredibly hard to recycle. This is exactly what the Oxford Dictionary details about e-waste, including in the definition, "typically containing environmentally hazardous substances and requiring special treatment for safe disposal or recycling."

These attributions are the cause for a very important questions: what does e-waste actually do to the environment? As described by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, about 6.9 million tons of e-waste is generated in just the U.S., and if not recycled properly, will lead to hazardous materials such as battery acid, lead, and mercury leaching into local soil and groundwater.

Unfortunately, talking about how electronics are recycled is heavily complicated and heavily boring. However, I can surely talk about how little e-waste is actually recycled. According to the WHO (not the band), less than a quarter of e-waste was properly documented and recycled globally. A QUARTER... GLOBALLY. It doesn't necessarily matter how e-waste is recycled if it ain't being recycled in the first place.

Now that the problem is properly in context, it's time to consider one of the biggest contributors to e-waste, one that will shape future research and put a spotlight on big tech companies. That contributor is a little concept called planned obsolescence.

Planned obsolescence, as described by Wendy Hamblet in the Salem Press Encyclopedia of Science, is designing and building a product in a way that ensures the owner seeks to replace it after a certain amount of time. This concept applies to all products, but lately the term is most associated with electronic devices.

Given the definition has an implicit incentive structure to make a product last for less time in order to sell more products, it's no shock that this concept can be seen in most big technology companies who sell highly valuable (expensive) devices. The biggest offenders are companies that make a new product every single year (cars, phones, computers), subsequently arbitrarily removing support for an older product (just look at Apple for an example).

As stated previously, planned obsolescence will be a major focal point when analyzing tech companies, comparing what they say about being environmentally friendly, versus what they actually do with their products and advertising.

[coridallasmultipass]

OMG IT WORKS, I WAS ABLE TO REPLACE THE STRAP WITH A SWATCH STRAP!!!!

Guys, it's been SO LONG since my cheap-ass generic/unbranded watch's strap started breaking, and I had to take off my favourite watch a WHILE ago (you can see the old strap in the bag is completely broken on both sides now, it just crumbled when I picked up my watch to measure it).

I had no clue how to shop for a replacement or which point to disassemble the old strap at! Turns out, it's Swatch compatible! So I went ahead and ordered the name brand Swatch strap for this size, and IT FITS. Well, the strap fits. The Swatch metal posts that hold the strap to the watch body were too thick by a hair and wouldn't slide in the metal watch body. Thankfully, the old posts in my watch were still good to use, since they were original to the watch.

I'm SO glad I can keep using my 2019 impulse purchase. I've already replaced the battery in it once, and now knowing how to replace a watch strap has been a really good skill to add to that. I hate throwing shit out when it stops working, I'd rather repair it, especially because this is a really cool and comfortable watch to me. Yeah it's hashtag retrowave aes, but it also uses a tally system with the LEDs for telling the time/date (as opposed to analog/digital), which is really cool and not something you see often. Also, with the new strap being leather - I know how to care for leather, and it will definitely last longer than the previous plastic that only lasted for a couple years of wear.

I'm so fucking excited.

[fat-wallet-annex]

That Monster in the Closet

We’ve all got one, but maybe mine is a little different than yours. What started with a single old keyboard kept “just in case,” soon grew to include mice, monitors, cables, and cords. Joining the morass were MP3 players, cellphones, watches, and other electronic gadgets. Photo by Francesco Paggiaro on Pexels.com Now of course you’re probably going to say, why not throw it in the trash? why…

[e-wastemart]

Impact of E-Waste on Human Health and the Environment

Have you ever wondered what happens to your old electronics when you don't need them anymore? It's important to know about electronic waste or e-waste and how it affects us and the planet.

What is E-Waste?

E-waste is what we call old electronic stuff like phones, computers, and gadgets that people throw away. For detailed guides on E-Waste visit our blog What is E-Waste Recycling? and Why It’s Important

Why Is E-Waste a Problem?

E-waste is a big problem all over the world. Every year, there is more and more of it. This is not good for our health and the environment.

Health Problems

E-waste has dangerous things inside, like lead and mercury. When these things get into our food and water, they can make us sick. Breathing in bad air from burning e-waste is also harmful.

Harm to the Environment

When we don't recycle e-waste, it piles up in big garbage places. This takes up a lot of space and can hurt the land and animals. Also, our electronics have special metals inside that we can use again, like gold and silver. If we don't recycle them, we waste these important things.

What Can We Do?

There are things we can do to help with e-waste:

Use E-Waste Recyclers: E-waste recyclers are people or companies who take our old electronics and make them into new things.

Learn About E-Waste Recycling: There are different ways to recycle e-waste, and it's good to know about them.

Recycling Types: E-waste can be recycled in different ways. Some parts can be used again, and some can be turned into new things.

Let's all do our part to take care of our old electronics and keep our planet clean and healthy.

For a more in-depth exploration of this critical issue, visit our blog Impact of E-Waste on Human Health and the Environment or explore our website, E-Waste Mart.

[wizard-mp4]

Not to mention that when you buy into apples ecosystem, you're locking yourself into it. That's not to say that Microsoft Windows is truly any better than Apple OS, and in many cases, it's not. But lock yourself into Apple, and you'll be overpaying for sometimes lesser hardware and always at an inflated price. And when you already have 1 apple product it's so easy to just keep buying into their ecosystem.

we need to be teaching kids that macbooks are shit and dont do anything or else tiktok freelancers will make them think macbooks are good

[brpinfotechpvtltd]

E-Waste Recyclers in India

At BRP Infotech, we are committed to leading the way in e-waste recycling and helping our community go green. By recycling e-waste, we not only prevent harmful materials from ending up in landfills but also recover valuable resources that can be reused in the manufacturing of new products.

[reasonsforhope]

I'm worried about electronic waste, e-waste recycling, and such loss of resources.

That's real. For what it's worth, I think it's something we're going to get a LOT better at. The raw materials - and even partially depleted materials that can be downcycled - are too valuable to be left forever.

Tip for anyone worried about e-waste or looking to be more environmentally conscious: Whenever I have something electronic that dies (this includes batteries, power cords, string lights, and vapes), I stick it in an out-of-the-way drawer, and then once every year or two, I bring it all to either an e-waste recycling place or an e-waste disposal place (which, my understanding is most e-waste disposal places do a lot of materials reclamation as well, though if I'm wrong someone please correct me). I just look online to find a place.

Sometimes it's a bit of a drive, but it's so worth it. I encourage others to do the same!

Anyway, here's some headlines about e-waste to hopefully lift your spirits:

^That's Western Australia, not Washington state.

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Greener electronics being developed to reduce unsustainably high levels of e-waste

Greener sensors, circuit boards and other electronic devices are being developed by EU researchers to reduce unsustainably high levels of e-waste. To develop eco-friendly electronics such as sensors and circuit boards, Dr. Valerio Beni is following the paper trail—literally. An expert in green chemistry at Swedish research institute RISE, Beni has switched his focus to wood from pulp in a bid to make consumer electronic devices that have no carbon footprint and are easier to recycle.

Read more.

[anushavr-maganti]

You can sell all kinds of scrap in one place for best price. No transportation problem for you because we take care of everything.

[3rtechnology]

Understanding the E-Waste Recycling Process

The e-waste recycling process plays a vital role in protecting the environment, conserving resources, and reducing pollution. By responsibly recycling electronic waste, we can recover valuable materials, prevent harmful substances from harming ecosystems, and contribute to a more sustainable future

3R Technology

8002 S 208th St E105, Kent, WA 98032

+12065827100

[edsonjnovaes]

Usuário usa baterias de notebook para energia elétrica de sua casa

Em um fórum chamado Second Life Storage um usuário afirma que conseguiu conceber um sistema de energia para a sua casa que lhe permitiu fornecer eletricidade durante oito anos. Para fazer isso, ele usou mais de 1.000 baterias antigas de notebooks usadas. Viny Mathias – IGN. 07 jan 2025 Sistema de baterias criador por Glubux I already produce a part of the electricity that I need. I have 1.4 kw…