E-Waste is a growing concern not only for environmentally-minded consumers but also for the entire Waste Management Service industry. There are currently many great efforts to reign in this stream of waste and recycle more of it. In the meantime, here are some very interesting facts about e-waste.
- Every year, Americans discard nearly two and a half tons of consumer electronics directly into landfills.
- Even though e-waste accounts for a mere two percent of total waste currently in landfills, it makes up almost 70 percent of toxic materials currently found in landfills. This is dangerous not only to the soil but to surrounding water reservoirs.
- On a global scale, there is approximately 50 metric tons of e-waste that end up in landfills.
- The latest consumer electronics such as cell phones and tablet computers contain fair amounts of precious metals such as gold and silver. Americans throw away almost 70 million dollars worth of precious metals every year. These metals are easily recyclable.
- Many tons of landfill e-waste material is actually entire pieces of equipment such as whole computers or printers. These items very often can be refurbished or recycled and have no business taking up space in landfills.
- It is estimated by experts in the Waste Management Service industry that only 12 percent of e-waste is recycled annually. This amounts to tons of toxic materials being dumped into local landfills every year.
- For every one million laptop computers that are recycled, the equivalent of almost 4000 homes worth of electricity is saved.
- Recycling one million cell phones can recover approximately 40,000 lbs of copper, 800 lbs of silver, 80 lbs of gold, and 40 lbs of palladium.
- Nearly all consumer electronics are considered too hazardous to be placed in landfills. The worst offenders are televisions and computer monitors with cathode ray tubes, LCD televisions, and plasma televisions.
- Almost a ton and a half of water and 50 lbs of toxic chemicals are needed to manufacture one computer and monitor.
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