E-waste statistics - Alabama worst state for toxic waste, Nevada best for phone recycling

E-waste is one of the most significant challenges of modern life with tons of precious metals and harmful chemicals ending up in landfill sites rather than being reused or properly disposed of. Practically every household in the country has personal electronic devices like cell phones and laptops; only a small fraction of these devices are disposed of properly when replaced.

E-waste is challenging because many of the materials used in electronic devices are finite resources, such as lithium, gold and platinum. Additionally, harmful chemicals like lead, chromium and mercury can leach into the ground, affecting water quality and having a negative impact on plant life.

What is e-waste?

E-waste is electronic waste, specifically waste produced by consumer electronics. Cell phones, laptops, computers and headphones all constitute e-waste. Research by the WEEE Forum estimated that, of 16 billion phones possessed worldwide, 5.3 billion would become waste in 2022.

DoSomething.org revealed that e-waste makes up 2% of America’s landfill trash but constituted 70% of overall toxic waste. As the rapid pace of technology development continues, the need for e-waste recycling becomes ever more important to ensure these harmful chemicals are disposed of correctly and the earth’s resources are protected as much as possible.

E-waste produced by different countries overall

How much can we recover from e-waste?

Per weight, circuitry is actually richer in materials than mined ore. Circuit boards have 40 to 800 times more gold and 30 to 40 times more copper than ore, meaning every circuit board disposed of is a major loss of these vitally precious materials that can be recycled.

For every million cell phones recycled, we could recover over 35,000lbs of copper, almost 800lbs of silver, 75lbs of gold and 33lbs of palladium. With an estimated 100 million phones disposed of each year, this represents 1,750 tons of precious metals potentially lost permanently.

If all 100 million old phones were recycled properly rather than thrown away, this would be the carbon equivalent of taking 136,800 cars off the road. With global governments under extreme pressure to reduce carbon emissions to keep warming to a safe level, this kind of action must be taken if we’re to keep producing electronics at the current rate.

Phone recycling to reduce e-waste

Research by cell phone recycling company Decluttr shows that the average household has $264 of unused tech lurking in their homes, and 58% of Americans keep up to three unused cell phones. The average weight of personal e-waste per person is around 44 lbs, totalling 7.3 million tons of waste in unused tech.

The most common way to dispose of unused electronics is to resell them, either through auction platforms like eBay or by selling them to third-party sellers. Over 189,000 Americans search “sell my phone” each year and the below graph shows the states that conduct this search the most often.

How much e-waste is produced by computer businesses in the US?

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) records the disposal of materials on-site and off-site at businesses across the country. Using this information, we were able to measure the amount of some of the most harmful chemicals being released by the computers and electronics industry.

The materials tracked include lead, mercury and copper. These metals aren’t as rare as gold and platinum but their harm if released into the environment is considerable. This means that the production of electronic items is producing waste at the beginning and end of the item’s life.

Which states are worst for chemical waste?

In addition to the damage caused by the improper disposal of tech by consumers, the manufacturing process of computers and electronics results in huge quantities of harmful chemicals being distributed into the environment.

Though most of this harmful waste is disposed of off-site, it’s evidence that the more we can recycle devices, the better protected the environment will be. Direct reuse of products is the safest option, as even mining circuit boards for precious metals produces further harmful chemicals, but this isn’t always an option.

Ways consumers can reduce their e-waste impact

The world is now set up in a way that consumers and businesses are always going to need technology. From phones and laptops to headphones and keyboards, most adults may have already lost count of the number of electronics they’ve used in the past. But, with the pressing challenge of climate change, every individual needs to take steps to reduce their impact on the environment.

Some methods that both personal consumers and businesses can use to keep their contribution lower include:

• Keep your devices for longer

For personal consumers, keeping your devices for longer than two years vastly reduces the environmental impact of the device. The estimated environmental impact of iPhones sold in the holiday season in 2021 1.4bn kilograms of carbon, meaning every year you extend the life of your device, you help to bring this number down.

For businesses, reclaiming devices when employees leave and reusing them for other employees is an effective way of saving on costs and environmental impact. These devices will need to have their hard drive data destroyed properly before being reused.

Most phones receive security updates for at least five years and their lifespan can be extended with a battery replacement.

• Repair before shopping

When your screen breaks or your battery has started to run out quickly, it' seems easier to replace the entire device than send it to a repair shop but this option is much more affordable and is beneficial to the environment. Every ounce of precious metals saved by reusing phones helps protect the finite amount remaining on the planet.

• Buy second-hand

Buying a second-hand or refurbished phone also prevents the large amounts of carbon and raw materials expended on making a new phone. Refurbished cell phones can save as much as 260kg of raw materials and 78kg of carbon. High quality refurbished phones are close in quality to brand new devices so you can still enjoy the benefits of a new device without as much harm to the planet.

• Send your old or broken devices to a recycle/resale company

If you do order a new device, you can offset some of the impact of your purchase by ensuring that your old device is recycled or resold properly. Couple this with a second-hand or refurbished phone and you can further reduce the impact of your mobile phone consumption.

• Invest in high-quality electronics

For electronics other than cell phones, investing in higher-quality products is another way you can prevent e-waste. Cheap cables and wired devices like a mouse or keyboard still use finite materials and are often forgotten in the discussion on electronics recycling. Paying a higher price for a better-quality product should result in fewer purchases in the long-run.

E-waste is one of the biggest challenges of modern life. Since many of the materials essential to the production of electronic devices are finite resources, the challenge will only get more pronounced the more we use. Though electronics manufacturers will need to take major steps to tackle the problem, these actions allow consumers to contribute to the reduction of e-waste right now.