What happens to old electronics when they reach the recycling depot??.?

Question

What happens to old electronics when they reach the recycling depot??.?

Answer 1

if the game systems r metal they'll might like either burn them and make new game system or they'll fix up and sell it again

Answer 2

They just did a news article on it here in Washington, seems it is collected then auctioned off of which over 90% winds up in China or India where people living in cardboard shacks break it apart and collect the lead, tin and such.

Answer 3

There is a very interesting article in National Geographic this month about e-waste. Apparently it is a huge environmental problem in countries such as China and Africa where there is no legislation to protect the environment or workers. Many of the products are sent to Asia or Africa because it is cheaper than recycling in North America. There items are burnt and melted by low paid people without any face mask and sometimes using cooking pots. Frightening!

Answer 4

if there plastic they are burned down and re-shaped for new games and products.

Answer 5

An interesting question!  I've just started a new job working in electronics reverse engineering (recycling).

The percentage of gold and other valuable alloys is so tiny that whilst they are extracted, they are used in other engineering applications once they have been smelted but are not used in the jewellery industry as far as I am aware.

Plastic housing is shredded and sent for further processing, which could involve making plastic pellets or granules for further melting and extrusion into other products.  Because of the unique makeup of plastics materials, it is not viable (or even possible) in most cases to take the material back to its original form.  Unfortunately, quite a lot of the hard plastic casing from pc screens, tv's, etc. goes to China where many plastic products are made from it.

Cables are separated and any valuable metals such as copper and aluminium are sent to scrap metal markets where an income is possible.

Harmful and hazardous powders which are found in CRTs (Cathode Ray Tubes) from tv's are extracted and sent to hazardous waste landfill.

Fridges and freezers are taken for degassing (CFCs removed) and the cabinets are then taken to scrap metal merchants.

I spend part of my time visiting sites in France for my company and recently visited a huge dismantling plant.  It's a shame to see so many perfectly functional items being taken apart but that's the consumable society we now live in.

C'est la vie....

Answer 6

if it is plastic it gets burned down n recycled for new things

Answer 7

The circuit boards and guts are ripped out and sent to a refinery where they are melted down; the gold and other precious metals is removed.

All the gold in the world is recycled. The ring you are wearing is probably made with recycled gold that was once part of someone's laptop.