Are Electronic Recycling Services Profitable?
The problem of electronic waste is continuously increasing. It is very difficult to even calculate the exact amount of electronic waste present on Earth. There are just approximations. Also, every year, more than thousands of tons of electronic waste is produced. The worst part of the whole situation is no one is accountable. The federal government cannot stop the continuously increasing manufacturing services because of the economy. If stopped, millions of workers will lose their jobs. Also, the GDP numbers may fell drastically. Thus, the only solution to the problem is implementing national electronic recycling services. Accordingly, the federal government has started providing incentives to manufacturing companies and e-waste companies for recycling maximum e-waste.
Because of high recycling cost in developed countries, electronic waste is Recycled in developing or underdeveloped countries. After availing electronic waste recycling services, the components are re-used. However, these countries are not prepared to handle electronic waste. The employees are working in hazardous conditions without personal protective equipment kits (PPE). But because the process supports the economy, it is going on. On the other hand, these services are important for data destruction too. ITAD Companies use electronic recycling to achieve two goals. These are a data destruction and reusing the components available. Now let’s check-in which ways the recycling services are profitable:
Cost-cutting:Cost-cutting is an important factor that helps in decreasing the cost of goods. The cost of extracting new elements is almost double the cost of recycling. Accordingly, recycled components are available at approximately half the price of new ones. This way the cost of the end product decreases.
Environmental benefits:There are a lot of benefits of availing of recycling services. It is almost impossible to handle electronic waste without recycling services. For example, if millions of tons of electronic waste are ending in landfills, pollution can increase to a great extent. With the help of recycling services, electronic waste cannot pollute the land and water. Accordingly, the species are also safe.
In many areas, the groundwater is contaminated. That’s because the number of hazardous components like mercury and zinc increases. These toxic chemicals are responsible for multiple diseases. Due to the complexity of chemicals, there is no sure shot treatment available. Also, availing of recycling services reduces the need for extracting new chemicals. Accordingly, less oil and other natural resources are used in extracting fresh chemicals. This way the carbon emissions are also low. The countries are able to fulfil their promises as per the Paris climate agreement.
Employment: With the help of the efforts of the federal government and responsible citizens, the electronic recycling industry is quickly growing. Accordingly, many individuals are employed in the same. However, the only point of discussion is about the safety of these employees. That’s because a major chunk of electronic waste is delivered to developing countries. The reason behind this is low recycling costs. Many electronic recycling companies are following bad practices to reduce the cost of the whole process. For example not buying personal protective equipment kits (PPE) for the employees. Even if there are kits, the employees may be using them for a long time. Because of this, employees are vulnerable to hazardous waste.
Conclusion: No one can deny the fact of how good electronic recycling services are. However, even after the attempts of the federal government and electronic recycling companies, thousands of tonnes of e-waste is handled irresponsibly. The only way to handle the situation is by combining the efforts with manufacturing companies. The same strategy has been used in the past but the plan was ineffective. Here, all the manufacturing companies should take the initiative of recycling the gadgets they’re producing irrespective of profit and loss.