Hopyard Recycling | Printer Disposal | Electronics recycling | Document shredding

1. What is E-Recycling? Explained E-waste, commonly known as e-scrap or e-waste, is the waste that we generate from surplus, broken or obsolete electronic devices. Electronics contains a variety of toxic and hazardous chemicals and materials that are released into the environment if we do not dispose of them properly. Electronic waste or electronics recycling is the process of recovering materials from old devices for use in new products. With such a short lifespan, electronics are quickly converted to e- waste. In fact, it is estimated that there are about 500 million unused cell phones accumulating in people’s homes. Globally, a cell phone is sold annually by about 25% of the population, and each year millions of electronic devices such as mobile phones, televisions, computers, laptops and tablets reach the end of their life. Unfortunately, most of these electronic products end up in landfills and only 12.5% of e-waste is recycled. More than 41.8 million tonnes of e-waste have been dumped worldwide, according to a UN study, with only 10–40% of recycling done properly. Electronics is full of valuable materials, including copper, tin, iron, aluminum, fossil fuels, titanium, gold, and silver. Many of the

2. materials used in making these electronic devices can be recovered, reused and recycled, including plastics, metals and glass. Recycling e-waste allows us to recover a variety of valuable metals and other materials from electronics, conserve natural resources (energy), reduce pollution, save landfill space and create jobs. According to the EPA, recycling one million laptops could save the energy equivalent of electricity that 3,657 U.S. households can use for a year. Recycling one million cell phones could also help recover 75 pounds of gold, 772 pounds of silver, 35,274 pounds of copper and 33 pounds of palladium. Apple’s report says it returned £ 2,204 worth of $ 40 million in 2015 from recycled iPhones, Macs and iPads. Recycling electronics can be challenging because discarded electronic devices are complex devices made of glass, metals and plastics of varying proportions. The recycling process can vary depending on the materials being recycled and the technology used, but here is an overview. Collection and transport are the two initial stages of the recycling process, including e-waste. Recyclers place trash cans from Hopyard Recycling or electronics boxes at designated locations and transport collected e-waste from those locations to factories and recycling facilities.

3. Shredding or Document shredding, Sorting and Separation: Once collected and transported to recycling facilities, the materials in the e-waste stream need to be recycled and separated into clean goods like Printer Disposal that can be used to make new products. Efficient material separation is at the heart of electronics recycling. Shredding e-waste makes it easier to sort and separate plastics from metals and internal circuits, and shreds waste into pieces up to 100mm in size to prepare for further sorting.