Two municipalities in Florida recently opted to send household e-scrap to a waste-to-energy plant rather than use their contracted processor for recycling. As of October 2022, Pinellas County stopped sending public e-scrap to A1 Assets, which both municipalities have used since 2018.
The decision was made for several reasons, including limited markets to recycle household electronics and residents throwing more electronics in their garbage cans than being dropped off at the county’s household hazardous waste (HHW) center or collection events.
According to a county statement from the program director for recycling and outreach programs Emily LeMay, “Prior to this change, approximately 6,800 tons of electronic waste had already been disposed of as regular garbage and was being processed at the Solid Waste Disposal Complex each year compared to a mere 460 tons of electronic waste collected through the HHW Center’s programs annually.”
Residents can place TVs, monitors, CPUs, laptops, tablets, cell phones, and other electronics in their trash bins. However, rechargeable batteries must be removed due to fire risks.
“Ultimately, we felt it was best to manage e-waste in-house because we can, via our Waste-to-Energy Facility, recover the metals and burn the hard plastic casing to create energy,” said LeMay. County officials have insisted that the waste-to-energy plant can recover metals from electronics via a municipal solid waste incinerator that uses magnets and an eddy current separator to recover ferrous and non-ferrous metals from the ash.
Electronic waste disposition is extremely important, and if not disposed of properly, such as sent to landfills, can cause large chemical fires and pollute groundwater. Incineration is another method of e-waste disposition, but it can also lead to air pollution if not properly monitored.
Third-party disposition facilities can provide many benefits to an organization. IT asset disposition facilities like HOBI provide services like data security and erasure that are critical to prevent data leaks. HOBI also provides value-added IT asset disposition (vITAD) services such as support for remote workers, ESG reporting, customized reverse logistics solutions, portal customization for asset tracking, and re-imaging and redeployment.
Recycling e-waste mitigates environmental liability, protects clients’ data, and provides a second lifecycle for used devices while maximizing ROI.
For more information about our ITAD services, call 817814-2620 or contact HOBI at sales@hobi.com.