Colin Staub is a reporter at Resource Recycling. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Lithium-ion batteries have caused numerous fires around the country, both in e-scrap facilities and in materials recovery facilities. | Mehaniq/Shutterstock
An e-scrap firm recently described the fire hazard lithium-ion batteries present and emphasized the importance of identifying and properly handling them.
Printed circuit boards are made of roughly 30% metal and 70% nonmetals. | Sebastian_Photography/Shutterstock
Scientists who set their sights on potentially hazardous chemicals in scrap electronics say they can effectively break down the flame retardants in shredded circuit boards.
In April, the Chinese government will enact new requirements for pellet imports. | Piyathep/Shutterstock
Officials in Beijing are set to enact new requirements around the purity of recycled plastic pellets imported into China, which could disrupt international markets for U.S. e-plastics.
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Gartner reported that businesses upgrading to Windows 10 played into strong demand last year. | People Image Studio/Shutterstock
Global PC purchases increased in 2019, reversing a years-long downward trend. The growth was driven primarily by sales to the business sector
Thousands of printers were stockpiled at a N.H. residence for over a year. | KG Design/Shutterstock
A stockpile of printers that were originally destined for recycling led to a dispute between a New Hampshire municipality and a local resident.
A draft update to the e-Stewards standard has been released and is open for public comment. | SFIO CRACHO/Shutterstock
Recently, e-Stewards offered details on updates to certification criteria and outlined audit results. It also announced the first companies to join a workforce training program.
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Supermicro’s annual survey found fewer respondents are choosing certified recycling operators. | Maximumm/Shutterstock
A survey of data centers found the IT-rich facilities are moving in the wrong direction when it comes to recycling their hardware.
The development of a new domestic e-plastics outlet comes at a time of market turbulence for the low-value materials. | KPixMining/Shutterstock
An Indiana plastics processing operation will consume roughly 40 million pounds of plastic from e-scrap and other products annually. Brightmark Energy plans to start up the facility in mid-2020.
The PCB Scrap Recovery system is designed specifically to process low-grade circuit boards. | Courtesy of PCB Scrap Recovery.
A Mexican engineering firm has developed a printed circuit board processing system marked by low resource use and simplicity. The company recently patented the process and is looking for partners.
In addition to the growth in e-scrap processing, the New York Times report focused on the poor conditions of some Thai recycling operations. | Wead/Shutterstock
The scrap electronics processing industry is active and growing in Thailand, according to a New York Times feature, despite the country’s move to reject imports of end-of-life devices last year.