Bobby Elliott is the editor at large at Resource Recycling. He has been with the company since 2013 and has reported extensively on the e-scrap industry, including CRT glass recycling, state electronics recycling programs and flat panel display processing. He can be reached at [email protected]
Illinois-headquartered Com2, which uses glass to produce a glaze for ceramics, has seen its processing activity cut in half over the past year.
Large piles of CRT glass at Closed Loop’s S 59th Ave. site in Phoenix. Photo from 2016.
Major CRT tonnages left behind by Closed Loop Refining and Recovery sit in warehouses in Arizona and Ohio as regulatory and legal action continues.
With the U.S. e-scrap industry continuing to rely on the export market, companies are not only contending with domestic laws and certification requirements – they’re navigating a wide range of complex and unique international laws as well.
One of the nation’s largest e-scrap processors has filed for bankruptcy, a move the company’s CEO described as a strategy to avoid being taken over by an investment partner.
Shuttered CRT processor Nulife Glass continues to wade through a lengthy and costly cleanup of its East Coast operations.
Over the past decade, third-party certification has become an expectation for many processors and refurbishers of electronics.
The debate over the merits and pitfalls of e-scrap exporting has been alive and well for decades now, but one thing has remained clear: Choosing to ship material halfway around the world adds a thick layer of complication to the basic goal of managing the domestic e-scrap stream.
The second half of 2017 saw e-scrap revenues rise for Sims Recycling Solutions, while profits fell due to European market pressures.
