The Power of a Technology Portfolio: Electronic Waste Recycling & Reuse
Americans generated 6.9 MMT of electronic waste in 2019, recycling only 15% of that amount. E-waste can result in serious harm to human health and the environment, so REMADE is working to increase the recycling rates of electronics. Recovering e-waste’s precious metals also reduces dependence on finite raw materials and increases the resiliency of the US supply chain.
According to EE Times, a well-regarded industry publication, many electronic parts or products are remanufactured, including consumer products such as smartphones and PCs. The global market is estimated at $80 billion, and demand has surged during the COVID pandemic. This is good news, but REMADE knows more can be done.
The Institute has multiple e-waste R&D projects working to increase recycling rates and recover high value metals, including those focused on collection, condition assessment, and exploring the recovery of copper and other precious metals from e-waste.
Our current portfolio of e-waste R&D projects – conducted in partnership with Caterpillar, RIT and others - is capable of saving up to 27 petajoules of embodied energy per year, up to 200,000 metric tons of materials savings annually, and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions by 1.8 million metric tons per year.
For more information, read our 2020 Impact Report here.