We know that the popularity of urban mining has skyrocketed in the past decade, but the sheer amount of e-waste available for metals extraction is truly astounding. While used consumer electronic waste compromises less than 2% of the waste stream, the numbers are still massive.
Five years ago, more than 2 million tons of TVs, PCs, peripheral items, keyboards and cell phones were discarded. Of that number, about 80 to 85% (1.5 to 1.9 million tons) was discarded in landfills.
From 1980 to 2004, approximately 1.95 billion of these electronic units were sold to consumers, with nearly half of these units still in use five years ago. Nine percent (about 180 million units) sold during this time are simply sitting in storage.
Today, an estimated 15 to 20% of these electronic items (345,000 to 379,000 tons) are recycled annually. Though the incidence of recycling continues to increase, these percentages remain steady due to the constant increase in the production of electronics.
With nearly 1 billion pieces of electronics out there going unused, a vast urban mining and e-waste extraction market is left untapped. If you are looking to recycle old electronics in your home, visit 1-800-RECYCLING.com to locate an e-waste recycling location near you.