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Waste reduction fast facts: Electronics

Garbage and recycling  ›  Recycle at school  ›  Fast facts about waste reduction  ›  Electronics

This resource is not exhaustive nor is it all-inclusive, but can be cited and dated from primary and secondary sources. To find out more about the methodology or accuracy, contact the referenced source.

Metro does not validate nor endorse any of these facts.

• In 2005, Americans used an average of six wireless products in their day-to-day lives (up from an average of 3 in 1999) with over 30 percent of Americans using eight or more. –Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation, Survey conducted by NOP World on behalf of the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation (RBRC), 2005
  www.call2recycle.org
• In April 2001, Nielsen Media Research listed Portland, Ore., as the most “wired” city due to the fact that 70 percent of households “have access to the Internet from a personal computer at home.” –Metro, “Assessment of E-Waste Collection and Processing Issues for the Metro Region,” 2002
  http://www.worldwatch.org/features/vsow/2003/12/22/http://www.metro-region.org/article.cfm?articleID=5565
• The “materials intensity” of computer manufacturing is 10 times higher than that of automobiles or refrigerators. –Environmental Science and Technology, “Energy Intensity of Computer Manufacturing: Hybrid Assessment Combining Process and Economic Input-Output Methods,” Eric Williams, 2004; 38(22); 6166-6174.
  http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es035152j
  
• Microchip production involves more energy, water, fossil fuels, toxic chemicals, and elemental gases than any industry in history. One semiconductor plant can require enough electricity to power a city of 60,000 and several million gallons of water a day. –Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, “Fourth Annual Computer Report Card,” January 9, 2003
  http://www.svtc.org/cleancc/pubs/2002report.htm
• The fossil fuels needed for the production of one memory chip are about 600 times the weight of the chip. By comparison, the total fossil fuel needed to produce an automobile is 1 to 2 times its weight and 4 to 5 times for an aluminum can. –Environmental Science and Technology, “The 1.7 Kilogram Microchip: Energy and Material Use in the Production of Semiconductor Devices,” Williams, E. D.; Ayres, R. U.; Heller, M.; (Article); 2002; 36(24); 5504-5510.
  http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es025643o
  
• The vast majority of the energy a computer uses over its lifetime is required during the manufacturing process (81 percent) as opposed to operation (19 percent). –Environmental Science and Technology, “Energy Intensity of Computer Manufacturing: Hybrid Assessment Combining Process and Economic Input-Output Methods,” Eric Williams, 2004; 38(22); 6166-6174.
  http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es035152j
  
• The energy savings potential of reselling or upgrading a computer is some 5-20 times greater than recycling it. –Energy analysis of end-of-life options for computers: Resell, upgrade, recycle. E. Williams and Y. Sasaki. in Proceedings of the 2003 IEEE International Symposium on Electronics and the Environment, San Francisco, CA, 187-192 (2003)
  http://www.it-environment.org/publications/ISEE 03 RUR.pdf
• The average lifespan for a common PC manufactured in 2005 is estimated to be two years. –National Safety Council, “Electronic Product Recovery and Recycling Baseline Report: Recycling of Selected Electronic Products in the United States,” May 1999
• Americans are buying more computers than people in any other nation. Currently more than 50 percent of U.S. households own computers. –The Basel Action Network, Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, “Exporting Harm: The High-Tech Trashing of Asia,” Feb. ‘02
• The National Safety Council predicts that in the U.S. between 315 million and 680 million computers will become obsolete within the next few years. The waste will contain more than 4 billion pounds of plastic, 1 billion pounds of lead, 1.9 million pounds of cadmium, 1.2 million pounds of chromium, and nearly 400,000 pounds of mercury. –Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, “Fourth Annual Computer Report Card,” January 9, 2003
  http://www.svtc.org/cleancc/pubs/2002report.htm
• In California alone, more than 6,000 computers become obsolete every day. In Oregon and Washington, it is estimated that 1,600 computers become obsolete each day. –The Basel Action Network, Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, “Exporting Harm: The High-Tech Trashing of Asia,” Feb. ‘02
• Consumers are storing an average of 2-3 obsolete computers in garages, closets and storage spaces. –Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, “Poison PCs and Toxic TVs: California’s Biggest Environmental Crisis That You’ve Never Heard Of,” June 19, 2001
  www.svtc.org/cleancc/pubs/poisonpc.htm
• Only 6 percent of computer CPUs were recycled in 1998, with TVs and mainframes experiencing even lower rates of recycling. By comparison, over 64 percent of appliances are recycled annually in the United States. –National Safety Council, “Electronic Product Recovery and Recycling Baseline Report: Recycling of Selected Electronic Products in the United States,”May 1999; Environmental Protection Agency, 2005
  http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/hazwaste/recycle/ecycling/trends.htm
• In 2003, 2,023 tons of electronics (including computers, monitors, and TVs) were recovered in the State of Oregon. –Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, Oregon Recovery and Waste Generation Rates Report,” December 2004
• Research completed in Europe shows that electronic waste is growing at three times the rate of other municipal waste. –Environmental Protection Agency, “ Electronics: A New Opportunity for Waste Prevention, Reuse, and Recycling,” EPS 530-F-01-006, June 2001
  http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/osw/elec_fs.pdf
• More than 3.2 million tons of electronic waste is laid to rest in U.S. landfills each year. –Environmental Protection Agency
  www.epa.gov/epaoswer/osw/conserve/plugin/index.htm
• In 2002, residents in the Portland metro region disposed of 9,290 tons of electronics waste (including computers, monitors, TVs and other cathode ray tube devices). –Metro, “ Waste Composition Study,” Steve Apotheker, 2002
• It is estimated that U.S. electronic plastic scrap amounts to more than 1 billion pounds per year. The largest volume of this plastic used in electronics manufacturing consists of PVC (26 percent). –Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, “Fourth Annual Computer Report Card,” January 9, 2003; and “Composition of Typical Desktop Computer,” 1996 Electronics Industry Environmental Roadmap, Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation, February 1996, Appendix 1
  http://www.svtc.org/cleancc/pubs/2002report.htm
• Televisions and CRT monitors contain an average of four pounds of lead. –Environmental Protection Agency, “ Electronics: A New Opportunity for Waste Prevention, Reuse, and Recycling,” EPS 530-F-01-006, June 2001
  http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/osw/elec_fs.pdf
• Consumer electronics constitute 40 percent of the lead found in landfills. –Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, “Fourth Annual Computer Report Card,” January 9, 2003
  http://www.svtc.org/cleancc/pubs/2002report.htm
• While many computer companies have reduced or phased out the use of PVC, there is still a huge volume of PVC in the computer scrap that continues to grow - potentially up to 250 million pounds per year. –National Safety Council, "Electronic Product Recovery and Recycling Baseline Report: Recycling of Selected Electronic Products in the United States," 1999
• Every month approximately 100,000 pounds of CDs become outdated, useless, or unwanted. –Environmental Protection Agency, “The Life Cycle of a CD or DVD”, Solid Waste and Emergency Response (5305W) EPA530-H-03-002, April 2003
  http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/osw/students/finalposter.pdf
• Cell phone subscriptions in the U.S. have increased from 340,000 in 1985 to more than 140 million at the beginning of 2003. –INFORM, “Call All Cell Phones: Collection, Reuse, and Recycling Programs in the US,” Eric Most, 2003
• In 1992, only one in 237 people worldwide used a mobile phone. By 2002, this had soared to one in five. –Worldwatch Institute, Vital Signs 2003
• By 2005, approximately 100 million cell phones will be retired each year in the U.S., over 25 times more than in 1990. Toxic substances contained in cell phone are associated with cancer and a range of reproductive, neurological and developmental disorders. –INFORM, “Cell Phones: A Poster Child For Extended Producer Responsibility”, January 2004
  http://www.informinc.org/fact_cellEPR.pdf
• Between 1999 and 2003, cell phone collection programs recovered approximately 2.5 million cell phones, about 1 percent of the phones discarded during this period. –INFORM, “Cell Phones: A Poster Child For Extended Producer Responsibility”, January 2004
  http://www.informinc.org/fact_cellEPR.pdf
• More than 400 electronics recyclers operate in the US employing more than 7,000 people to process more than 750,000 tons of e-scrap (or more than 40 million computer units) per year. –The International Association of Electronics Recyclers, 2003

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