Why Reuse is Always the Best Option for IT Equipment

When it comes to managing the disposal of IT assets, the impact on the environment is a crucial consideration. The carbon footprint associated with manufacturing new electronics is very high, but it is unavoidable when a company needs to refresh its tech. While recycling is often touted as an environmentally friendly solution, especially compared to landfilling, the reality is that recycling electronics is fraught with inefficiencies and hidden dangers that can have significant environmental and social impacts. Let's explore these issues and highlight why reuse is always the best option for managing e-waste.

The Carbon Footprint of New Electronics

Manufacturing new electronics, particularly IT devices like laptops and smartphones, is a carbon-intensive process. Their manufacturing accounts for approximately 67% ± 15% of their total lifetime emissions. This high percentage is due to the mineral mining, processing of raw materials, product manufacturing, and supply chain transportation required to bring these devices to market.

Here are the carbon footprint estimates for some popular electronic devices:

• Laptop Computer: 243 kg (about 535.7 lbs) CO2e
• Desktop Computer: 486 kg (about 1071.5 lbs) CO2e
• Tablet: 121 kg (about 266.8 lbs) CO2e
• Smartphone: 67 kg (about 147.7 lbs) CO2e

If your company needs to replace 500 laptops, this contributes directly to 121,500 kg (about 267,861 lbs) of CO2e in your Scope 3 emissions. While replacing outdated IT equipment may be unavoidable due to tech issues, downtime, and lost employee productivity, there are ways we can significantly reduce the overall environmental impact of our IT asset disposition (ITAD).

The Limitations of Recycling

Recycling electronics helps reduce the environmental impact by cutting down the need to extract and process virgin materials. It also prevents additional emissions from landfills or incineration, saving an average of -0.837 metric tonnes of CO2e per short ton of electronics. However, recycling is not without its emissions, as it involves collecting, transporting, extracting, and remanufacturing the materials. Additionally, not all devices are recycled in R2-certified facilities that minimize toxic impacts on workers and the environment.

Inefficiencies in the Recycling Process

The recovery rate of materials from recycled electronics varies widely, and the process is not as efficient as many assume. Here are some recovery rates for common materials provided by the US EPA:

• Steel: 95% recovery
• Aluminum: 87% recovery
• Copper: 57% recovery
• Nickel: 28.94% recovery
• Lithium Cobalt Oxide (batteries): 33.47% recovery
• HDPE Plastics: 9.03% recovery
• PET Plastics: 3.12% recovery

The Risks of Overseas Recycling

While notable improvements have recently been made in enforcement, e-waste is growing every year, and a significant portion of e-waste is still recycled overseas in informal recycling centers, where the focus is primarily on extracting precious metals. The remaining materials are often burned, which releases toxic substances into the environment. These informal centers pose severe health risks, especially to children and pregnant women who often work in these hazardous conditions.

Image by Muntaka Chasant, CC BY-SA 4.0, showing informal e-waste recycling in Ghana with the open burning of electrical wires to extract valuable metals.

Loopholes and Illegal Exports

Despite the Basel Convention, which prohibits developed countries from shipping e-waste to developing countries, many manufacturers and ITAD providers continue to exploit loopholes to continue this practice. For instance, HP, Dell, and Lenovo have clauses that allow exceptions with approval, while Apple has policies that leave them unaccountable for what happens to products destined for recycling. This can allow e-waste to be shipped under the guise of "donations," making it a lucrative business that sometimes even involves organized crime.

The Superior Benefits of Reuse

Reuse trumps recycling in several ways. When electronics are reused, they avoid the entire cycle of re-manufacturing new devices, which significantly reduces emissions. The US EPA explicitly describes this in its waste management hierarchy diagram.

Image of the Waste Hierarchy Diagram from the US EPA

Reuse Prevents Up to 28 Times the Carbon Emissions Compared to Recycling

Here's a specific example to illustrate the impact:

• Recycling Laptop Computers: Prevents -1.07 MT CO2e per short ton of desktops.
• Reusing Laptop Computers: Prevents -29.83 MT CO2e per short ton of desktops.

Clearly, reuse leads to a much larger reduction in carbon emissions, making it a better option.

Image showing the carbon emissions or reductions from reuse, recycling, landfilling, and incinerating electronics. Data from US EPA WARM.

The Role of ITAD

If your assets have reached the end of their useful life in your company, they can still be reused. It is important to initiate ITAD at the right time to ensure that those assets can still be refurbished and reused. Technology is advancing at lightning speed. If you upgrade your computers but place the old ones into a storage room, even just for a couple of years, they are unlikely to hold much value when you dig them out again, reducing the chance that they can be reused. So, it's important to get those assets into the hands of professionals as soon as possible.

Choosing an IT asset disposition (ITAD) provider with a zero-waste policy that prioritizes reuse over recycling is crucial. These providers have the skills to refurbish and repair IT equipment, extending their useful life and placing them in the hands of those who might otherwise not afford them. This not only has positive environmental impacts but also social benefits.

ICT's Mission Reuse is an exemplary model. They already have a zero-waste policy in place and prioritize refurbishing and reusing assets, ensuring that almost all assets (about 90%) are remarketed rather than recycled. They have 22 nationwide processors they work with, each with their own specialty, such as laptops and computers, others specializing in cell phones and tablets, others in Apple products, and others in data center devices like servers and storage media. This not only ensures a closed loop with no loopholes for assets to end up where they should not, but it also facilitates the maximum possible reuse because the devices are sent to specialists who can refurbish them for resale. This approach supports a circular economy, eliminates landfill use, and significantly reduces the environmental impact.

Case Study: ICT collaborated with a medical services company to securely dispose of 62 assets, including data wiping, equipment resetting to the manufacturer's default, and sanitization. Our solution ensured 95% of the equipment was reused, 5% was recycled, and the cost of the entire process was compensated by the value of the equipment. Let us help your organization dispose of e-waste efficiently and sustainably.

Final Thoughts

While recycling is better than landfilling, it is not the ultimate solution for managing e-waste. The hidden dangers and inefficiencies in the recycling process, along with the exploitation of loopholes for exporting e-waste, make it a less ideal option.

By reusing electronics, companies can significantly reduce their carbon footprint, support a circular economy, and contribute to environmental sustainability. Partnering with ITAD providers that prioritize reuse can even transform IT asset disposition from a cost burden into a profit center, all while making a positive impact on the planet. Now, that is a win-win for everyone!

Find Out How We Can Help

If you are an enterprise, government, or institution looking for ITAD solutions or have additional questions, please contact us at ICT. You can also find more information in our white papers on Going Beyond E-Recycling: How Smart ITAD Avoids Up to 28 Times More CO2 Emissions and on Comparing Recycling Services of ITAD Providers.

Selected References

Basel Convention. (2011). Www.basel.int. https://www.basel.int/TheConvention/Overview/tabid/1271/Default.aspx

ICT About ICT (n.d.) ICT About Company Page. Retrieved February 2, 2024, from https://ictcompany.com/

ICT Mission Reuse (n.d.) ICT Mission Reuse. Retrieved February 2, 2024, https://mission-reuse.com/

Interpol. (2009). Electronic Waste & Organized Crime Assessing the Links. Phase II Report. https://www.interpol.int/content/download/5174/file/Electronic Waste and Organized Crime - Assessing the Links.pdf

SERI - Sustainable Electronics Recycling International. (2013). Sustainableelectronics.org. https://sustainableelectronics.org/

‌UNITAR. (2024). Global e-Waste Monitor 2024: Electronic Waste Rising Five Times Faster than Documented E-waste Recycling. https://unitar.org/about/news-stories/press/global-e-waste-monitor-2024-electronic-waste-rising-five-times-faster-documented-e-waste-recycling

US EPA. (2015, September 11). Sustainable Materials Management: Non-Hazardous Materials and Waste Management Hierarchy | US EPA. US EPA. https://www.epa.gov/smm/sustainable-materials-management-non-hazardous-materials-and-waste-management-hierarchy

‌US EPA WARM (2019) Documentation for Greenhouse Gas Emission and Energy Factors Used in the Waste Reduction Model (WARM) Electronics. US Environmental Protection Agency. https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2019-06/documents/warm_v15_electronics.pdf ‌

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