What Happens to Recycled Computer Parts?
Computers and electronic equipment are made from multiple types of plastic, metal, glass, and precious metals. Our goal when recycling electronics is to separate the different materials from each other. The better we separate the materials, the more ways these commodities can be used to make next generation products. At UER, we process, disassemble and recycle as much e-waste as we can in-house. Some recycled computer materials are processed by our R-2 certified downstream vendors. Recycling your computer with us ensures that nothing ends up in the landfill.
Copper
Copper is one of the precious metals that computers can contain. Recycled copper (secondary production) and mined copper (primary production) can be used interchangeably, as it is one of the few materials that can be recycled repeatedly without any loss of performance. One of the most common uses for recycled copper is the production of fine and superfine enamelled wires.
CRT Glass
One of our downstream vendors uses a process that converts CRT glass into a product which tile manufactures use in replacement of raw materials. This process converts the CRT to a fine powder while adding a mixture of other fluxes to produce a vitrified compound ceramic. Consequently replacing a portion of the materials that tile manufactures have been using to produce titles sold throughout the world.
Interior Components
During the process of dismantling, United Electronic Recycling ensures all data on computers are destroyed using NIST 800-88 level wiping. NIST overwrite pattern uses the strongest wiping techniques to remove all data from a device to ensure that all sectors of the drive are securely wiped.
After all data is securely destroyed, the next process is separating all interior components of a computer. Interior components of desktops include RAM boards, CPU chips, motherboards, power supplies, and video cards. Sometimes these components can be re-sold or salvaged depending on the generation and condition. However, most of them are sent to secondary material recyclers that subsequently shred the interior components into gravel-like consistency.
Scrap Metal
When the scrap metal has been thoroughly sorted and cleaned, it is ready to be made into usable metal once again. Generally, the cleaned and purified metals will be melted thoroughly and then cast into ingots bricks of purified metal that are then ready to be used in manufacturing. Different metals will go through different purification and melting process, with some shredded before melting.
Recycle Your Computer with United Electronic Recycling
Electronic waste has a damaging impact on our environment and that’s why we take responsibility for properly disposing of each piece of electronic equipment going through our facility. Contact us to learn how UER can assist you with your electronic recycling needs.
