Sims Recycling Solutions reported tighter profit margins at its continental Europe facilities earlier this year and in 2018. | Aleksandr Grechanyuk/Shutterstock
In a deal worth tens of millions of dollars, Sims Recycling Solutions agreed to sell its European operations oriented toward recycling consumers’ electronics. Sims will retain its ITAD business there.
E-plastics have been heavily impacted by market shifts in the past two years. | myibean/Shutterstock
A European effort is calling on consumers to push manufacturers into using recycled plastic in new electronics as a way to build end markets for the challenging material.
Discarded electronics are estimated to reach 122 million short tons per year around the globe by 2050. | Petra Nowack/Shutterstock
A United Nations-backed study predicts massive growth in global tonnages of end-of-life electronics, and it examines how the recycling sector can best prepare.
MBA Polymers plans to start processing e-scrap devices at the new facility in 2020. | PIYAWAT WONGOPASS/Shutterstock
Global plastics recycling company MBA Polymers will open a facility in Germany to recover e-plastics from electronics and appliances.
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.
The EU is working to provide a financial incentive to companies to redesign products to reduce their environmental impacts.| Giannis Papanikos/Shutterstock
The European Union is looking to financially reward OEMs that produce environmentally friendly devices and punish those that don’t. Industry groups are urging caution.
Managing e-scrap is a growing challenge and opportunity in Asia. | weedezign/Shutterstock
A business acquisition will bring British technology for extracting valuable e-scrap metals to the Asian market.
A global OEM is calling on European governments to prioritize sustainability when they purchase electronics.
European Union leaders appear to have settled on a limit for trace amounts of flame retardants in recycled plastics. A reclaimer called the limit “workable,” but activists say it’s not nearly restrictive enough.
Metals company Boliden recovered copper and precious metals from 95,000 short tons of printed circuit boards in 2018, up 12 percent year over year, according to an annual report.