Tag: E-Waste

Categories
Electronic Components Environment

How does recycling electronics help create sustainability within the industry?

How does recycling electronics help create sustainability within the industry?

How does recycling electronics help create sustainability within the industry?

Thanks to advancements in material science and recycling technologies, it’s possible to recycle around 80% of most new electronics. For example, the smartphone in your hand or pocket has around 80% recyclable components.

The most valuable components in electronics are rare and precious metals. The quantity of these metals in your phone is tiny but the number of phones (and other electronics) that enter landfill is huge. This creates a lucrative opportunity for recyclers to invest in processes that can extract the most valuable components efficiently.

Recycling in the electronics industry

Recycling electronics is important to not only reduce e-waste, but also our dependency on the mining and manufacturing of new materials. 

The electronics industry is at odds with environmentalists because the industry that’s pioneering solar and renewable energy technologies generates a lot of e-waste. You can’t have it both ways. If you want technology to fight climate change, it first has to advance to a point where it becomes neutral and self-sustained.

Mass recycling is the process that will enable this in the future. For now, it is a stop-gap to minimise the electronics industry’s impact on the environment. And it’s working, with 15% of e-waste recycled globally in 2019. This figure is rising by 2-3% per year. In 2030 we expect the global e-waste recycling rate to hit 50%.

European legislation requires every manufacturer and producer to arrange and finance the collection, treatment, recycling and disposal of WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment). This is a positive step. In the future, we want to see 100% recycling efficiency, although this will require different materials to those used today.

Excess inventory management

Another area of the electronics industry where recycling is important is excess electronic components. These components are not assigned for manufacturing and have no purpose in production. They take up space and are depreciating assets.

These components tend to be discarded and written off. However, recycling is not the best thing for them. The best thing for them is putting them back into production. The old phrase “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” springs to mind.

This process is known as excess inventory management and it requires an electronic component distributor to purchase unwanted stockpiles of components. These stockpiles are then re-sold through a distribution network.

This provides a few benefits to the seller:

  • An instant, positive cash injection
  • Reduced stockholding costs
  • Reduced time spent managing surplus stock

For example, our excess inventory specialists purchase and manage stock that has been identified for disposition. This process turns unwanted electronic components into cash and introduces new revenue streams into existing businesses.

Where does excess inventory end up?

Most excess inventory ends up on the production line with manufacturers and OEMs to create new products. This puts the components into production and significantly increases the time from manufacture to end of life.

Other components can find no end user. In this case, the components are sent to specialist recycling centres who purchase the components as scrap. Around 10% of excess inventory is sent on for recycling. The majority enters production.

Categories
Electronic Components Environment

How Lantek help tackle environmental issues in the electronics industry

Climate chnage

How Lantek help tackle environmental issues in the electronics industry

There’s no industry as polarising as the electronics industry when it comes to the environment. This is the industry that generates 70% of all toxic waste on the planet, yet it’s also the industry that’s pioneering renewable energy to address climate change.

The best way to look at the electronics industry from an environmental point of view is as a work in progress. We know that the industry is facing several environmental challenges now and in the future. The question is, how should we respond to them?

We are a global electronic component distributor, supplying electronic components to global customers. Our position in the industry has given us a unique perspective of the environmental challenges it faces. In this article, we’ll discuss some of the challenges we are facing and how we are addressing them.

Improper component storage

One of the biggest problems in the electronics components industry is the lack of environmentally-controlled storage facilities.

The biggest danger to electronic components is humidity which has to be controlled to ensure the components do not degrade. Problems like moisture absorption and contact corrosion have to be considered in storage.

Lantek only operates environmentally-controlled storage facilities. Our facilities are designed to ISO 9001 standards. ISO 9001 is the international standard that sets out the requirements for a quality management system.

Delivery emissions

Electronic components and electronic devices are shipped via land, sea and air. Some packages find their way in transit covering several countries in a single day. This generates unavoidable emissions as a natural by-product of operating.

These emissions can be reduced or offset in a few ways. The simplest way is to always use the most efficient transit methods and logistics firms that offset their emissions. This means the sender doesn’t have to offset their own emissions.

We go with this method because it allows us to meet our environmental obligations while also ensuring a high-quality delivery service.

Electronic waste (e-waste)

Electronic waste is the biggest issue facing the electronics industry. Only around 20% of e-waste is recycled each year. The rest enters landfill. It accounts for 70% of all toxic waste on the planet, which is an astonishing figure.

Lantek is helping to reduce the amount of electronic waste that enters landfill by putting components that would otherwise enter landfill back into use.

You’d be surprised by the number of components we save that are new old stock. We save hundreds of thousands of components each year. Many of these are rare legacy electronic components that are no longer being made.

Looking ahead

The electronics industry gave you the smartphone in your hand and the internet that connects you to this article. There’s no denying it’s an immeasurably valuable industry and our future will have more technology. That’s a certainty.

As civilisation becomes more reliant on technology, we will develop technologies that address the industry’s biggest environmental challenges. In particular, we hope to see a significant reduction in e-waste and emissions soon. For now, the future is what we make of it, and we’re optimistic about what the future holds.