We at EpicHorizons know that e-waste and especially its generation is a huge problem that receives far too little attention.
As often happens in sustainability, it suddenly becomes a lot more important when money is involved. Preferably when companies discover that it has a negative financial impact.
Earlier in De Tijd in Belgium (link: https://www.tijd.be/politiek-economie/belgie/economie/maffia-ontdekt-goudmijn-in-elektronische-afvalberg/10522227.html):
Metal processor Aurubis saw 165 million euros evaporate due to large-scale scrap metal fraud. The waste sector acts like a magnet to organized crime, which is particularly keen on the precious metals in the ever-growing e-waste mountain. ‘Roughly 30 percent of e-waste leads a shadowy existence or is simply without a trace.’
Electronic waste fraud cost the heads of three of the four executives of the German group Aurubis this week. The 150-plus-year-old recycling giant, which has two sites in Olen and Beerse, was forced to confess that internal employees and suppliers had rigged loads of scrap metal, from which the company purges copper and precious metals. The fraudsters falsified the samples, which indicate the content of valuable raw materials in a load of waste to be recycled. On that basis, they were able to charge higher fees.
The affair, which saddled the company with a financial hangover of 165 million euros, sent shockwaves through the industry. Determining the value of discarded electronics such as laptops, smartphones and televisions requires careful laboratory analysis. That electronic junk is worth a lot of money because it contains a mix of copper and other precious metals such as gold, indium or palladium.
By giving it a second life after recycling in high-tech applications such as solar cells, batteries for plug-in cars and Wi-Fi, we can save a lot and also reduce our dependence on imports of such rare raw materials.
That criminals had managed to deliver tons of “e-waste” and falsify its value after visual or chemical inspection in Aurubis’ lab indicates that they were particularly well organized. ‘I am very shocked by this,’ says Manu Palmans, the ceo of Mirec, a company based in Sint-Niklaas that specializes in mining raw materials from old electronics.’
E-waste is one of Belgiums -if not the worlds- biggest challenge when it comes to mitigating the amount of e-waste and recycling it. It is known that there’s more precious metals on landfills than there’s still in the earth.
Working with organizations to extend the lifecycle of electronic devices can already help you as a company to reduce your negative impact on this topic.
One of the easiest things to do is implement a better / more sustainable procurement strategy. Keep in mind that the IT industry (manufacturers) will always be listening to their customers. So: use your buying capacity as leverage to help them design new sustainable products and practices.
Want to know how much e-waste is generated (= thrown away) this year already? And yes it is still January! Follow this link: https://www.theworldcounts.com/challenges/waste/electronic-waste-facts
This is a print screen of the counter on Jan 30, 2024, roughly growing with 1 Ton per second!
Global e-waste is thought to hold roughly 60 billion U.S. dollars‘ worth of raw materials such as gold, palladium, silver, and copper. However, just 17 percent of global e-waste is documented to be collected and properly recycled each year. (source: statista).
Time to save some money. And also save the planet. Sounds familiar? ;-).