Colin Staub is a reporter at Resource Recycling. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Open burning of e-scrap is an ongoing problem in the West Bank, as highlighted by mainstream media recently. | Peter Hermes Furian/Shutterstock
A New York Times photo essay on electronics recycling in the West Bank shows unsafe practices that experts say correlate with health problems among residents.
The bill’s sponsors have said the proposal would help to grow the domestic recycling industry. | Rolf 52/Shutterstock
Legislation limiting e-scrap exports has now been introduced in both federal legislative chambers, and in both cases the bills have bipartisan sponsorship.
The newly formed company, Quantum Lifecycle Partners, will operate eight processing facilities in four Canadian provinces. | Olivier Le Queinec/Shutterstock
GEEP Canada and the Shift Group of Companies are bringing together their e-scrap and ITAD offerings, a move they say will boost their reach across Canada.
In 2018 Fairfax County collected nearly 1.6 million pounds of scrap electronics. | Lukasz Stefanski/Shutterstock
E-scrap collection contracting in Fairfax County, Va. turned messy after the county selected a new service provider to replace its existing vendor.
Independent repair firms will soon be able to more easily tackle Apple devices. | Kevin Khoo/Shutterstock
Apple will make official repair resources for common out-of-warranty iPhone repairs available to a larger number of independent repair shops.
Recycling of rare earth metals has drawn greater attention in the e-scrap industry in recent years. | stuphipps/Shutterstock
European Union grant money will fund a rare earth metals recycling project in the U.K. The planned pilot facility will target magnets found in hard drives and other devices.
IRT is expanding and moving into this 230,000-square-foot building in St. Cloud, Minn. | Courtesy of IRT.
IRT is moving into a facility more than five times the size of the company’s current Minnesota site as its business model evolves.
India was the second largest importer of U.S. scrap plastic during the first six months of 2019. | Avigator Fortuner/Shutterstock
Recovered plastic, including material from end-of-life electronics, has largely stopped flowing from the U.S. into India, which until recently has been among the top importers of scrap plastics.
Apple confirmed its installation of battery-checking software. | gowithstock/Shutterstock
Newer iPhone models contain software that effectively impedes third-party battery replacement, according to a repair advocacy group. Apple says it introduced the software as a safety measure.
Fire officials spoke with employees and learned the blaze sparked when computers were mixed with lithium-ion batteries. | Inaoy/Shutterstock
This story has been updated.
An Illinois e-scrap processor suffered a major fire this week. The cause is unconfirmed – company employees told investigators lithium-ion batteries were involved, but company officials dispute that fact.