Recycle of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment

Consumer electronics have been using every hour and moment, when these items reach their end of life they are defined as Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE).  Lots of electronic goods contain hazardous materials like heavy metals or batteries. These materials can cause serious environmental damage and are dangerous to human health.

Recycling rather than dumping means valuable components can be used again in new products and there will be less mining of raw materials. As more electronics recyclers open or expand their businesses, recycling is becoming more convenient and cheaper. Some businesses even buy unwanted computers and cell/smart phones for reuse or recycling.

Unwanted electronics should be recycled to recover and reuse the product itself or materials like copper, steel, glass that the product contains. Other materials like lead (in the solder on printed circuit boards; in the glass cathode ray tube (CRT) found in many televisions and computer monitors; in the batteries in uninterruptible power supplies) and mercury (in the fluorescent backlights in many flat panel displays) can be recycled to reuse the materials and to reduce the chance that these toxic materials could be released to the environment.

WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) is one of the fastest growing waste streams in the developed world. Everyone has a role to play in the effective recovery of WEEE, recycling electronics and reducing environmental pollution is our inescapable responsibilities. Leave more green space for our offspring. What is your contribution of the recycling of WEEE so far?