Cutting Edge E-Waste Recycling In Illinois

The Michigan-based company, 3S International, recently announced that they have opened a new electronics waste processing facility in Tinley Park, Illinois.

The sixty thousand square foot recycling processing facility contains 3S’s BLUBOX recycling equipment. BLUBOX contains the technology needed to reduce unwanted e-waste into recyclable pieces and safely extract elements, including mercury – at a rate of fifteen million pounds of electronics each year. 3S is currently the only company in the U.S. with the rights to use BLUBOX technology.

In the United States every year, millions of tons of computers and personal electronics are thrown away. While close to eighty percent of all e-waste materials are given over to specialized recyclers, the pieces often shipped overseas, re-sold, or sent to specialized landfills. Based on the results of BLUBOX recyclable processing, 3S will not have a need or reason to re-sell or landfill any of the electronics sent to them for processing.

3S currently collects and receives unwanted and unusable electronics throughout the states of Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan and has the ability to handle  the e-waste recycling needs of six million people each year. The company’s goal is to open close to ten new electronics processing recycling facilities throughout the United States within the next few years.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: If old cell phones, computers, gaming systems, and personal electronics are clogging up your home or office, it’s time to clean-up and start recycling! Even if you aren’t in an area that 3S services, chances are there’s a convenient e-waste drop off location at a local store, transfer station, non-profit group or house of worship, or municipal building. Many e-recycling events are publicized in local newspapers, or on radio and television stations, so get those dates on your calendar and get ready to recycle those unwanted items!

New Recycling Record Reached For Electronics

A new waste recycling rate for consumer electronics and e-waste reached a record high in 2013 almost doubling the electronics recycling amount that was set three years ago in 2010.

In the past calendar year, more than six hundred and twenty million pounds of unwanted, outdated, and unusable home and business electronics were recycled in the United States. Popular items for e-waste recycling includes computers, phones, laptops, and computer gaming systems. This is an increase in thirty five millions pounds being collected from the prior year. Recycling data in this sector is compiled by the Arlington, Virginia-based CEA: Consumer Electronics Association which has been monitoring the field for many years.

The substantial boost in recycling is in part attributed to the CEA’s eCycling Leadership Initiative, which is designed to improve collaboration between electronics manufacturers, retailers, recycling groups and businesses, non profit organizations and state and local government agencies. Companies who have increased their commitment to providing recycling opportunities and services include DIRECTV, Apple, Dell, and Best Buy.

The eCycling Leadership Initiative has established a 2016 annual goal of total amount of electronics waste recycled to reach and exceed one billion pounds.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: What does your business or organization do with outdated and unwanted computers, printers, cell phones, laptops, or specialty electrons equipment? If you’re finding that a supply closet is stuff full with these items, it’s time to do some research and discover e-waste recycling opportunities in your area! In some cases, a participating merchant will offer credit on recycled goods to be applied to new merchandise, and in other cases, functional equipment can be donated to a charitable organization. If you’re looking to save some green – and free up some space – look into electronics recycling!

Staples Brings Recycling Online

The popular office and business supply store, Staples Inc., is now offering all customers an online recycling option for the ink and toner cartridges used in computer printers and copy machines.

The Massachusetts-based company said it is adding this online recycling option to supplement and expand its long-existing and popular in-store “Staple Rewards” toner and ink recycling program.

The company believes the online option for Staples Rewards members will add a level of convenience and ease – in particular for those patrons and businesses that are not in close geographical proximity to a physical store location. Members will be able to print a pre-paid shipping label with direction on how to send their empty cartridges and will receive two dollars in Staples Rewards for each one received.

To date, Staples has recycled over three hundred and fifty million cartridges since starting the program in 2005. The total weight of all recycled metals and plastics collected exceeds one hundred and eighty two million pounds. In the last three years alone, over sixty million cartridges were recycled each year for a total recycled amount of sixty four million pounds of e-waste. The chain store’s worldwide goal is to recycle more than forty million pounds of electronics waste each year by 2020.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: When you’re looking to increase your waste recycling and decrease your waste disposal, look to the needs of your employees and customers. How can you make recycling easier and more convenient for them? Adding a new program or making subtle enhancements can help you to save green and go green at the same time!

Keeping Phones Out Of Landfills

The Guinness Book of World Records has awarded a record to Sprint Telecommunications for recycling 103,582 cellular phones in a seven day day time period – nearly doubling the record held by AT&T from the previous year.

In the United States, Sprint was the first wireless provider to provide customers with a  buyback recycling program, offering instant credit for cell phone and similar devices sold through its retail stores. Sprint officials says the company prides itself on its green practices such as phone re-use and recycling and reducing the levels of electronics waste that is sent to landfills every year.

Sprint estimates that currently forty percent of their customers participate in the recycling-buyback offer. However, their corporate goal is ninety percent customer participation by the year 2017.

While the final number won’t be available for a few months, Spring anticipates it will recycle or reuse close to one hundred million pounds of e-waste in 2013 – waste materials that might otherwise have ended up in the trash.  The company also is making efforts to use more environmentally friendly packaging and has recently formed a partnership with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the management of sustainable materials program.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: Does your business keep track of records set? Chances are you award employees recognition for high sales or profits, but what about high levels of recycling and saving money in waste disposal costs? Waste diversion and recycling can help your company go “green” while saving green every month!

Apple Starts New Recycling Program

The internationally popular computer and cell phone maker, Apple, has come forward with a consumer-focused plan to make it easier to recycle old iPhones and receive credit toward the purchase of a new one. The new program will be called iPhone Reuse and Recycling and be available at all Apple retail store locations.

The program, which started at select stores in late summer, and will roll out to other locations throughout the fall months, allows any individual with a valid cell phone contract using the iPhone to trade their unwanted, out dated, or used phone for store credit. The credit is designed to be used towards purchasing a new iPhone. The only qualification for participating is that the used cell phone must be in working order in order to participate and receive store credit funds.

The launch of Apple’s new recycling program coincides with the company’s release of the new iPhone 5S. Expected to be a popular choice among iPhone users, the recycling plan will provide consumers with a safe and easy way to recycle their old cell phones while receiving some credit towards a new one.

Wastecare Wants You to Remember: Providing product recycling solutions to your customers is a great way to encourage recycling and enhance the buying cycle. This strategy works well for all kinds of electronics waste such as cell phones, computers, and home electronics as these items have value on the after-market once they are dismantled. However, if you think creatively, you might be able to offer a similar bring-back program for other items that have value in your area.

 

Sports Fans Get Royal Treatment For E-Waste

Fans of the Kansas City Royals American League baseball team were in for a fun surprise at a recent electronics waste recycling and collection event. Held at the Royals’ home field, Kauffmann Stadium, the e-waste drop-off event was sponsored by Players for the Planet, a non-profit group that collaborates with sports teams around the country to help foster greater environmental awareness.

In a group effort involving Players for the Planet, Interstate Batteries, Vintage Tech Recyclers, Goodwill Industries, and Bridging the Gap, the two-day long electronics recycling event yielded over twenty five thousand pounds of unwanted, broken, or outdated computers, televisions, home electronics, cell phones, and gaming and media devices.

The big surprise for baseball fans came when Royals team-mates Jeremy Guthrie, Chris Gets, and Mike Moustakas stopped by to give out ticket vouchers for upcoming Royals home games for those recycling their unwanted electronics. All organizations involved believed the event not only helped to bring greater awareness to the community about the safe and responsible ways to recycle electronics but also showed participants the value of recycled materials as a part of the re-use and re-manufacturing stream.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: While electronics waste like old computers and equipment might take up space in your storage closet, it’s components can do serious damage to the environment if disposed of in a landfill. Make sure your business acts responsibly by recycling e-waste through an authorized recycler or special community event. You’ll gain space in that storage room and help to keep your community green!

Building Construction From Recycled Plastic

In Taipei, Taiwan, the nine-story EcoArk exhibition hall boasts an interesting accomplishment in green construction – its walls are constructed from more than one and one half million recycled PET plastic beverage bottles.

Designed by the architects at Miniwiz Sustainable Development, the use of recycled plastic is a key highlight designed to show other architects and construction professionals what is possible when non-traditional building materials are used.

The company also has another sustainable building in the development phase, this one for e-waste recycling firm Super Dragon Technology. That building will be built using discarded computer and electronic waste as well as waste polymers.

With a recent United Nations report showing that buildings are responsible for as much as forty percent of greenhouse gas emissions, Miniwiz is looking to expand and take their message of using recycled materials in construction worldwide.

Miniwiz success in Taiwan has been due in part to its ability to make materials and products cost-effective through a network of Taiwanese suppliers. Taiwan has both a well-developed recycling infrastructure and manufacturing industry. Taiwan recycles more than ninety percent of PET bottles which greatly exceeds the recycling rates of thirty percent in the United States and fifty percent in Europe.

The company currently produces three recycled plastic products for use in construction: iPolli-Bricks, a wall system made from one hundred percent recycled PET, Natrilon, a fiber made from rice husks and one hundred percent recycled PET, and Polli-Ber, a composite made from agricultural waste and recycled polymers.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: If you’re involved in construction it pays to be aware of the changes and innovations happening in the field. While ideas like walls made from plastic and electronics waste may seem novel and impractical, isn’t that what people once said about cell phones, the internet, and robotics?

 

E-Waste Laws Boost Recycling

A recent research review conducted in New York State by the Product Stewardship Institute has shown that for residents and businesses, having easy access to computer and electronics recycling contributed to an increase in recycling of unusable and outdated equipment and a decrease in municipal spending.

The state’s electronic producer responsibility law went into effect in the spring of 2011 and in the first eight months of operations, e-waste recycling increased over seventy five percent for a total of forty four million pounds of scrap electronics. The law was designed to prevent hazardous materials found in e-waste from ending up in landfills and to shift the responsibility of collecting these materials from local governments back to the electronics producers and manufacturers.

As a result, New York’s e-waste recycling is a growing sector, creating employment opportunities and adding to the tax base. Municipalities are experiencing cost savings by accessing e-waste recycling through the required manufacturer programs instead of paying to collect and dispose of the materials.

However, there is still room for improvement. The report states that public awareness for take-back recycling program is still low and that more, convenient collection sites throughout the state would help to increase the recycling rate even more.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: Whether you’re looking to increase recycling in a state, town, or your small business, the important thing to remember is convenience. The easier and simpler it is for people to recycle, the easier it’ll be to encounter success!

Wisconsin Breaks E-Waste Recycling Goal

Officials from the state of Wisconsin recently announced that more than one hundred million pounds of e-waste and unwanted and unusable electronics has been collected and recycled as a result of the state’s ban on sending electronics and computers to regional landfills. The ban on e-waste disposal was enacted three years ago and included all residents and business owners in the state.

Televisions, computer, and cell phones top the list of most frequently recycled items. A report released by the state’s Department of Natural Resources indicates that Wisconsin residents own three television sets per household. During fiscal year, 2012, which ended June 30 of last year, the state had collected more than twenty four million pounds of old and broken TV sets.

Throughout Wisconsin, there are more than four hundred state-approved registered e-waste collection sites that residents and businesses can bring their equipment to. These sites are guaranteed to responsibly handle the destruction of any data left behind on the machines as well as uphold all environmental guidelines for dismantling and recycling the metals and toxic substances contained in them.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: Recycling electronics waste is a great way to help the environment and clean out your office’s storage closet! If you have old computers, electronics equipment, and phones taking up space, call your state’s Department of the Environment or Department of Sanitation to find out where and how to recycle e-waste. You’ll cut down on your waste disposal fees and gain some room in that closet or spare room!

NYC Offers E-Waste Recycling For Apartments

In innovative new waste management and electronics waste recycling program has been launched for multi-unit residences with more than ten units in the New York City.

The initiative, being promoted as e-cycleNYC, is a voluntary program designed to encourage apartment dwellers to increase their level of electronics recycling.

While there are numerous retail locations throughout the city that offer free drop off for e-waste materials such as computers and televisions, those individuals and families residing in apartments may experience difficulty with transporting large or heavy items – especially those that live in older buildings without elevators or for those city dweller who do not own an automobile and rely on public transportation. New York City officials believe that the municipality’s low e-waste recycling rate, compared to other locations in New York State and cities of comparable size, is attributable to that fact.

The new e-cycleNYC program would allow for residents to leave their e-waste in a designated location within their building for collection, free of charge. The waste would be collected along with other recyclables and garbage.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: When it comes to recycling more and disposing less, you need to think about the habits and needs of the people you are targeting. If you’re trying to increase recycling efforts in your business, think about your employees’ routines and habits and what might be hindering them from recycling more. Coming up with a solution might help to save you money in waste disposal fees!