LED lights could offer a growing source of valuable metals, and current spending offers a look at the products that could dominate the waste stream in the future.No more CRTs: The Health Department Recycle Center in Canton, Ohio will no longer accept CRTs beginning next week, according to the Canton Repository. Citing increased disposal costs, the recycling center said residents discarding TVs or monitors with CRTs will have to foot the disposal bill themselves.
Cloud spending on the rise: Spending on networking equipment for use in cloud environments will reach $44.2 billion in 2017, according to an International Data Corporation forecast. That represents an 18.2 percent increase in spending for the equipment, which includes ethernet switches, server and enterprise storage.
Metals from LEDs: Researchers at the University of British Columbia in Canada have recovered copper and silver from LED lights, the Vancouver Sun reported. With LEDs becoming a popular alternative to fluorescent and incandescent lighting, the researchers predict LEDs will become viable sources of copper and silver as they enter the stream.
