E-Waste and the Circular Economy: Why ITAD Matters for the Environment

Our growing reliance on technology in both the workplace and everyday life has considerably raised the profile of IT and electronic waste. Research indicates that the amount of electronic waste produced this decade could reach 5 million metric tonnes.  

It is the fastest growing waste stream in the world and improper IT asset disposal (ITAD) and electronic waste in general is a major health and environmental threat. In this blog we will discuss the negative impact of electronic waste, the circular economy, and Recorra’s ITAD and electronic waste recycling service. 

The negative impact of electronic waste

The negative impacts of poor IT asset disposal on the environment and human health can be significant. Electronic waste contains harmful chemicals like acids, mercury, and lead which all have adverse effects. 

Toxic Chemical Leakage

Not disposing of electronic waste properly can leak toxic chemicals into the environment where they can contaminate soil and water. They can also accumulate in the food chain which poses a risk to both animals and humans. In fact, the build-up of mercury is so extensive that aquatic animals like fish are now the main source of human mercury exposure. 

Toxic elements found in electronic waste are: 

Lithium Battery disposal

A lot of focus is rightfully given to the toxic chemicals that can get leaked into the environment, but electronic waste can also be a fire risk. Recorra has first-hand experience with our collection vehicles catching fire due to batteries being thrown away in general commercial waste. 

Lithium-ion batteries are by far one of the biggest culprits which is why Recorra places so much emphasis on proper disposal. Find out more about our battery and vape recycling service here. 

Temperature Exchange Equipment

Temperature exchange equipment found in fridges and air conditioners can also slowly release greenhouse gasses. About 98 million tonnes are thought to leak from scrapyards each year which equates to 0.3% of global emissions from the energy sector. 

Mining

Some of the biggest environmental impacts of electronics comes from extracting and manufacturing materials to build them. The connection between IT asset disposal and mining may be indirect, but for the relationship between electronics and the environment, it is no less important. 

Environmental Impact

Electronics can be seen as vital to the green transition and yet nickel mining and processing was one of the main causes of deforestation in Indonesia. Lithium extraction can be fatal to aquatic life due to water pollution and lead to unsustainable water consumption in arid regions. Like most kinds of mining, Lithium mining also generates large amount of magnesium and lime waste. Mine waste is called tailings which is often toxic. 

Dangerous Conditions

Many of the metals used in electronics, lithium included, are extracted using open-pit mining. This is widely considered one of the most dangerous sectors in the industrialised world. Open-pit mining causes long-term change in vegetation, soil, and bedrock which ultimately contributes to changes in surface hydrology, flow paths, and groundwater levels. They also produce harmful pollutants such as sulphur which can end up becoming sulphuric acid, and cyanide which is used to treat gold ore. Open-pit gold mining in particular is one of the highest potential mining threats to the environment because of its effects on air and water chemistry. 

Ultimately certain types of mining can have such significant environmental and public health effects that mining companies in some countries are legally required to follow strict codes to ensure a mined area can return to their original state. Even so, it will take hundreds if not thousands for years to recover from the damage mining has caused. 

Unsustainable

It has also been commonly accepted by experts that the rate humanity is extracting materials from the planet isn’t sustainable. There is a serious risk that, as of 2025, the world’s platinum mines will be depleted in 11 years and silver in 16. One proposed fix is getting our metals from space, and some are betting big on asteroid or moon mining. But if we get our head out of the clouds, we’ll find that we already have a solution a lot closer to home: urban mining i.e. the extraction of metals from e-waste. 

The Circular Economy

We can’t do anything about the materials that have already been extracted, but with proper management of IT asset disposal and electronic waste, we can lessen future mining and its negative impacts.  

Ethical sources

By placing emphasis on recycling materials like nickel, cobalt, lithium etc. from electronic waste instead of needing to resource virgin materials from potentially unethical and immoral sources. This is also why Recorra and other waste companies stress the importance of recycling batteries separately; if they leak, they could corrode the equipment which then prevents it from getting recycled or reused. Recorra offers a separate battery waste stream to businesses which handles lithium-ion batteries, phone batteries, laptop batteries, watch batteries, and all AA, AAA, C+ D batteries. 

Playing not just smart, but strategic

Choosing recycling over mining is also a strategic decision. For some metals like aluminium, recycling is much more energy efficient. In fact, recycling aluminium requires 10 to 15 times less energy than mining virgin materials.  

Looking to the future of electronic waste recycling

While already being the more environmentally friendly option than sending electronics to waste, researchers are finding new ways to make electronic waste recycling even better for the environment. In 2023, Swiss materials scientists developed an AF aerogel that uses amyloid fibrils, extracted from th byproduct of cheese production whey, as an adsorbent for gold recovery. In terms of environmental impact, the use of AF aerogel also compares favourable compared to using activated carbon as an adsorbent due to it being sourced from a renewable and low energy intensive source. 

Sebastien Farnaud and his team are looking into the process bioleaching which extracts and recycles metals from e-waste using non-toxic bacteria. Bioleaching requires very little energy, and no toxic chemicals are used, meaning not only does it have a smaller carbon footprint than traditional methods, but it’s also environmentally friendly and safe. Solutions like bioleaching and AF aerogel could also make recycling alloys and composite materials a lot easier.  

AF aerogel and bioleaching are the sorts of innovations we at Recorra find exciting to see across the industry. Our ITAD and electronic waste recycling stream was created as a solution for damaging waste. We are eager as ever to protect the environment in an ever-changing world, so seeing these circular innovations in recycling is an exciting prospect to keep up with the growing issues around ITAD and e-waste.

Staying local

We already look to reduce the negative health impact and carbon footprint of electronic waste disposal by recycling 98% of the waste we collect within the UK. This means customers with Recorra as their waste manager can rest easy knowing that when disposing of electronic waste, it won’t be exported to countries where it’s treated as general commercial waste due to the lack of electronic waste recycling facilities. 

We recognise that because of the considerable environmental impacts of IT and electronic waste, making improvements in the ethics and efficiency of recycling these products is crucial for achieving both our own and our customers sustainability targets.

Recorra’s ITAD and electronic waste recycling service

Recorra’s IT asset disposal and electronic waste services ensures that a businesses used electrical and electronic equipment is responsibly processed and recycled. We can recycle a wide range of items like: 

• Printers 

• Network equipment 

• TFTs, CRTs, TVs, monitors 

• Telecommunications equipment 

• Laptops 

• PCs 

• USBs 

• Hard drives 

• CDs 

All data bearing items are handled by vetted staff and wiped with government approved software, Blanco, as soon as they arrive at our Material Recovery Facility in Purfleet. The entire process is tracked and audited so businesses can be sure that their data is kept secure. If requested, we will even physically shred data bearing items. Once this process is complete and depending on the items condition, it is then either recycled or refurbished for reuse.  

By recycle or reusing items, Recorra can do its part to minimise pressure on natural resources. We find higher end use applications for all resources to achieve maximum recovery levels.