Read the full story in Environmental Leader.
Electronic Recyclers International (ERI) has launched a new tracking and transparency system that gives customers complete real-time access to the status of their organizational recycling efforts, the company says.
The MyTrackTech software gives organizations that recycle their electronic waste through ERI up-to-the-minute access to their accounts and allows them to schedule shipments, review reports, and customize their recycling tracking.
As the world’s leading market for electronic products, the United States generates large quantities of used electronic products (UEPs) each year. UEPs are collected from consumers and businesses and evaluated for their value. They are classified as working electronic products and parts to be refurbished and resold, or as non-working goods to be recycled into scrap materials. Both working products and scrap materials may be resold in the United States or exported. These functions are performed by a diverse group of organizations including waste collectors, recyclers, original equipment manufacturers, retailers, brokers, and professional service firms such as equipment leasing companies and information technology (IT) asset management firms. The UEP supply chain is a complicated network of domestic sales and exports, which are likely to occur along each step in the chain. In 2011, total domestic sales of UEPs were valued at $19.2 billion, compared to U.S. UEP exports of $1.45 billion. This report, prepared at the request of the U.S. Trade Representative, estimates and describes (1) the type, volume, value, and foreign markets of significance for U.S. exports of UEPs; (2) the characteristics of UEPs exported from the United States; (3) the forms, activities, and characteristics of domestic enterprises exporting these products; (4) the forms and activities, with respect to UEPs, of enterprises receiving U.S. shipments; (5) the relative share of U.S. sales of UEPs that are exported; and (6) the factors affecting trade in UEPs. UEPs covered by this investigation include consumer and IT equipment such as audio and visual equipment, computers and peripheral equipment, digital imaging equipment, cell phones and other telecommunication equipment, and component parts of these products.
Read the full story from Harvard.
Incorporating sustainable practices into Harvard’s most energy and resource intensive spaces may seem like a daunting task, but for the laboratories on Harvard’s Cambridge and Longwood campus, green and labs are synonymous terms. For researchers, students, faculty, and staff at both campuses, sustainable lab practices just got even easier, thanks to the launch of the Harvard Labs Reuse List. Intended as a university-wide resource, the list encourages and enables trade, reuse, and sharing of working laboratory equipment and supplies.
Read the full story in The Harvard Crimson.
Harvard’s Office for Sustainability has placed clear, blue, e-waste collection tubes in over 50 locations across campus. The new program strives to increase the degree to which Harvard students recycle smaller, handheld e-waste from laptops, batteries, chargers, and phones that is harder to keep track of than the larger waste already collected by building managers and other personnel.
Until now, students, faculty, and other members of the Harvard community have had to submit their smaller e-waste to building managers for proper disposal. The new collection program seeks to imitate e-waste recycling efforts that already exist at the Harvard Divinity School that seek to eliminate the middle man in the recycling process by having easily accessible collection receptacles that quickly fill up with laptop batteries, old phones, and other hazardous waste.
Read the full story in Environmental Protection.
In order to make manufacturing a sustainable process, companies must green their supply chains by sustainably sourcing materials, reducing the carbon footprint of factories and transportation, and properly disposing of old products.
Read the full story at Co.Design.
Hal Watts, a designer and recent graduate of the Imperial College in London, has devised an easier, safer way to recycle copper wiring, one of the most common forms of e-waste. His device, called Esource–which started out as his final project at Imperial–includes two components: a bicycle-powered shredder that pulverizes the copper and its plastic coating into fine particles, and a sorter, which separates the copper from the plastic. The process is not only nonhazardous but also results in a 2% greater yield of pure copper.
The Delta Institute (Delta), is a 501(c)(3) environmental not-for-profit organization located in Chicago, Illinois and received funding for this project from the US EPA Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. Delta worked with businesses and local governments in the Cleveland and Toledo metro areas to develop improved purchasing and management practices that will reduce electronic waste (e-waste) and releases of associated toxic substances.
Read the full series in BusinessWeek.
From leaking sensitive data to spreading toxic e-waste, U.S. corporations perform poorly when it comes to recycling. Some, such as Las Vegas resort giant MGM, have come to associate sustainability with good returns.
Read the full story in Occupational Safety and Health.
The first phase of the Health Hazard Evaluation Program’s examination of health and safety in the electronic waste recycling industry is expected to end in April. It will include a survey of as many as 100 e-waste recycling facilities across the country.
Read the full post at Crafting a Green World.
Back in October we asked you guys what kinds of things you’d like more help reusing or upcycling, and you had some great questions, both via comment and email. We’ve addressed quite a few of them, from how to reuse old jeans to new ideas for old books, but there was one question that’s been stumping me for ages: how can crafters upcycle e-waste?
There are tons of tutorials out there for certain types of e-waste, like old circuit boards, but reader Nicole is looking for those less-used items, like broken electronic toothbrushes, Christmas lights, and dead batteries. I was able to find a few interesting ideas out there, but I’ll be honest: the pickings are slim when it comes to unusual e-waste crafts. So! I’m turning to you guys!
