An assessment by E-Scrap News shows the vast majority of the recovered electronic material handled in the U.S. is processed by companies employing third-party-certified environmental, health and safety practices.
The E-Scrap News database of for-profit e-scrap reclaimers in the U.S. lists slightly more than 1,500 plants (it also includes another 80 facilities in Canada). Of those American operations, more than 40 percent have been certified.
However, our database, which includes details on facility size and throughput, shows the certified plants are far larger than non-certified facilities. We estimate over 70 percent by weight of recovered e-scrap is handled by the nearly 650 certified plants. A great number of non-certified facilities are located in small communities, often in rural areas.
About 30 percent of all U.S. facilities operate solely under the R2 certification platform, and another 3 percent possess only an e-Stewards certificate. An additional 9 percent of U.S. facilities are certified under both platforms.
This analysis does not include certified facilities operated by nonprofit organizations. It also does not cover brokers of recovered mobile devices or vendors of recovered electronic parts.
