E-waste is the disposal of electronics or in other words electronic waste. Technology is moving at such a fast pace and new electronics are manufactured to keep up with the technology so old technology is discarded. We see this in cellphones, smart-phones, computers, printers, monitors, refrigerators, TV's, washing machines, excreta, excreta. Let's use an example on computers. The average life of a computer is around 3 years. In America 76% of the people have computers. This number does not include companies, organizations or education facilities. According to the EPA, if you total it all up, each year in the US, 3.2 million tons of electronic waste is trashed. Globally its 50 million metric tons of electronics and the sad part is many of these electronics end up in a landfill. But letâs go back to computers. Did you know 99% of a computer is recyclable and that in the U.S. about 4.2 million computers are used in homes or businesses? In the U.S. an estimated 500,000 are recycled annually. That's a little less than 12% which is a very shocking number considering how many programs are in place to encourage electronic recycling. Now there is a lot that goes into promoting, handling, and recycling e-waste and Iâd like to get down to some nuts and bolts and take a look at the challenges, processes and the benefit of recycling e-waste. To do this I have one of Canada's industry leaders in e-waste solutions. The name of the company is FCM and on the line with me is Andrew Rubin. Melvin Wylie
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