2019 Recycling Industry Yearbook

Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, Inc. 44 ELECTRONICS The electronics recycling sector has seen tremendous growth over the past decade. Recycling is one of a set services more broadly called IT asset management or IT asset disposition. ITAM companies may provide collection, storage, upgrading, and transportation of electronic products; data erasure; device repair, refurbishment, and resale; and dismantling for parts resale as well as recycling. Up to 75% of the ITAD material stream by volume comes from businesses and other commercial sources. Electronics recyclers have become highly efficient at dismantling devices, removing potentially hazardous materials such as lithium batteries and fluorescent bulbs, and recovering their many and varied materials. Electronic products may contain ferrous and nonferrous metals—in- cluding precious metals and rare earth metals—plastics, glass, and other recyclable commodities. The electronics manufacturing industry is constantly innovating, and recyclers must ensure their processes can keep pace with the changes. A February 2013 study by the U.S. International Trade Commission found that more than 80% of used electronic products collected in the United States were recycled, reused, or refurbished within the United States, while only 17% were exported. A subsequent 2013 report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Materials Systems Laboratory and the U.S. National Center for Electronics Recycling indicates that more than 90% of used electron- ics collected for recycling within the United States remain in the United States for processing. These research stud- ies provide irrefutable evidence that the vast majority of U.S. used electronics products are reused and recycled in the United States, not “dumped” into developing countries. More than 45,000 people work in electronics recycling in the United States. Source: John Dunham & Associates