B2B Portal Electronics

In the consumer electronics sector, electronic recycling becomes more and more important. The necessity for electronics recycling and electronic regulations has developed as an issue for the industry and politics in the 1990s, when electronic waste increased tremendously and waste disposal systems were requested. So called E-waste is created when consumers or companies no longer use electrical devices or throw away broken and unrepairable appliances – this could be fridges, computer screens, printers, plates or transistors. For the end consumer, experts assume that the amount of electronic waste, that could be recycled per year, exceeds ten kg. Uncontrolled disposal or burning of electronic waste could cause severe environmental and health problems.

 

But what are the reasons for the rapidly growing amount of electronic waste? The tremendous amount of recycling materials is created by a remarkable shift in the electronic market. Product innovation cycles are getting shorter and shorter, follow-up models are manufactured faster due to technological progress. Generally, products have a planned obsolescence. Consumers and companies constantly look for more effective, more intelligent, and smaller goods which make private and business life easier. Especially the consumer goods market for mobile phones, computers and television systems has changed throughout the last years – first and foremost due to better functionalities of new devices and due to ever falling prices.

 

As manufacturing, dealing with and selling electronics has become a globalised matter for producers, retailers and wholesalers, standardised, international recycling and disposal systems have to be put in place to deal with hazardous waste as this might be toxic and not biodegradable. The challenge is that there is no common and accepted definition of electronic waste valid for the international market. Industry associations and politicians claim that electronic waste has to be seen as a new resource. Consumers and businesses will have to change their consuming behaviour and have to be sensitive for the need of recycling computers, of battery recycling and general hardware recycling.

 

It is important to create recycling centers or recycling areas within industrial areas, as it happens at the moment in countries of the Far East. Another solution could be to arrange the take-back of used parts via dealers or to introduce a fee when buying a certain electronic good. Companies have specialised in electronic waste processing systems, for example for computer recycling, printer recycling or television recycling, which have become more and more mature. Reuse and refurbishing are options, too, which decrease the demand for natural resources.