Domestic localized recycling option eliminating export risks
Castaway Technologies offers our customers a domestic recycling option eliminating the legal, financial and environmental risks associated with exporting technology overseas.Legal - Certain countries prohibit the import of scrap electronics. For instance, China has banned the import of scrap electronics due to environmental concerns, but this does not stop millions of tons of US and European electronics scrap from entering the country illegally each year.
Financial - A growing market for identity theft has emanated from countries such as Ghana, where computer hackers shop for disk drives and other media retrieved from scrap electronics in order to mine the data for personal and financial information including bank and credit card information and social security numbers.
Environmental - In many of the countries importing western e-waste, after the product is processed and any value is retrieved, the remaining materials are then discarded. The remaining materials contain toxic heavy metals such as mercury, lead, chromium and beryllium, and cause serious health and environmental damage. Much of this material is discarded in or near rivers and other water sources used for bathing and drinking and, in some cases, can find its way into the food chain.
In addition, the methods of extracting the value from the scrap electronics pose a danger since burning of the materials to extract gold, copper and other valued materials is the preferred method. This produces toxic gasses that are inhaled by those doing the processing and anyone nearby.
The domestic recycling advantage over exporting:
- Electronics scrap, otherwise know as e-waste, is shredded locally and the resulting materials are separated and resold for use in the manufacture of new products. The material fractions include aluminum, copper, steel and plastics.
- Because technology is not exported, the risk of data resident on storage media (tapes and drives) is safeguarded since the media and all associated data is destroyed in the shredding process.
- The risk of improper handling and disposal of the waste streams are eliminated as a result of the materials being used for new manufacture or disposed of properly domestically.