Red Streak - August 2004

Old PCs not just high-tech landfill fodder

Every week, 200,000 to 400,000 pounds of discarded computers, docking stations, TVs, telecom equipment and other detritus of the electronic age are trucked into Intercon Solutions, a recycling company on Chicago's West Side.

There, on an assembly line run in reverse, crews of "demanufacturing" workers, paid $12 to $20 per hour, strip down gear that possibly only two years ago was someone's shiny new tool or toy. In an average of 90 seconds, they take apart computers, separating CPUs, speakers, modems and the like into the large bins.

Parts go to private smelting operations for recycling. In some cases, Intercon pays to dispose of potentially hazardous materials -- lead, chromium, cadmium, mercury and flame retardants.

Brian Brundage, 32, is CEO of Intercon, which has recycled electronics since 1987. He said Intercon pays other companies to recycle materials by charging $20 for each computer, including monitor, CPU and printer. It gets a small fee from smelters for iron and aluminum.

"People are surprised when they hear that companies pay to have their computers recycled," Brundage said. "But most consumer electronics actually have a negative value. The costs of processing are not offset by the value of raw materials."

Intercon is part of a growing industry aimed at controlling the mess created by a technological society. E-waste, potentially toxic residue, is the fastest growing part of municipal trash.

The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, an environmental group, estimates consumer electronics accounts for 70 percent of heavy metals, including 40 percent of the lead, in landfills. The problem has taken on an international scope as old computers have been shipped to China and elsewhere, where environmental hazards are being created. For example, an environmental group found that copper was harvested from wires by burning the insulation and releasing toxins.

Brundage said Intercon prides itself on "zero landfill tolerance. Everything we generate has raw- or base-metal value. Everything we remove is reused."

He said the only way to get to these materials is by dismantling equipment so smelters can reclaim materials, such as lead solder or metals on speakers.

Brundage said metal may be recycled to build cars and high-rises and plastics end up in "lumber" used in park benches and decks.

He said most of Intercon's clients are Fortune 500 companies and large organizations that feel a social responsibility to recycle electronics. Some major manufacturers, which he declined to identify, also send equipment that's been replaced by newer technology, hoping to keep the old stuff off the secondary market, where it can be a drag on new-equipment prices.

What about consumers?

Brundage said consumers are not considered a major source for e-waste. In most jurisdictions, they are free to toss out computers with the trash. But he said that likely will change in the years ahead.

"Consumers are not a core business. We're not aggressively pursuing that market, but we're not going to turn them away," he said. Intercon will recycle electronics for consumers starting at a minimum charge of $100 for five computers.

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