E-Cycle Washington reported a 13% drop in electronics collected, following several years of decline. | Somchai-Som/Shutterstock
The total and per capita weight of scrap electronics collected in Washington state continued to decline last year.
The state’s extended producer responsibility program for electronics, E-Cycle Washington, collected 13.3 million pounds in 2022, down 13% from 2021. That’s according to a recent report from the Washington Materials Management and Financing Authority (WMMFA), the producer stewardship group that manages the statewide e-scrap collection and recycling network.
The collections in 2022 came out to 1.69 pounds recycled for each resident, down 14% from 2021.
The Evergreen State’s program covers TVs, monitors and computer equipment. Over 76% of the weight collected last year was TVs, nearly 14% was monitors and 10% was computers.
The 2022 numbers continue a years-long trend of downward collections, as households clear out their old, heavy CRT TVs in favor of lighter devices.
A detailed breakdown of which companies recycled the pounds hasn’t been released yet. In 2021, processors handling materials collected through the program (from most pounds recycled to least) were Metro Metals, Ace Metal Company, E-Waste, EWC Group, Universal Recycling Technologies (URT) and ERI.
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