Here’s why e-waste pickup is a service you need today.
It’s always hard to resist when manufacturers roll out the latest version of your smartphone or laptop, with additional features that sound so enticing.
And the same is true if you have a business that uses a lot of computers that need to be replaced so you can give your workers the best technology possible.
The next question is what to do with the used electronics that you no longer want, use, or have recently replaced.
You have several options at this point – and the best one is to arrange to have those electronics taken to a recycling firm, so the parts within them can be extracted, and provided to manufacturers for use in making new products.
Parts within your used electronics can end up in new products that you and millions of other consumers purchase in the future.
And recycling your used electronics keeps them out of landfills, where the toxins within them can lead to hazardous materials seeping out into the soil and water there, thus endangering our health.
Not enough people are aware that electronics can be recycled, or how to arrange to do that. But that’s an easy process that either begins with a simple phone call or an email to a firm like Great Lakes Electronics Corporation.
Whether you’re an individual, small or large business, or community organization, you’re making a significant contribution to the health of our environment and to our economy by taking steps to reach out to a recycling firm.
What is the Proper Way to Dispose of E-waste?
So what is the proper way to dispose of e-waste?
If you have used electronics that are in need of being disposed of, don’t toss them into the trash. Recycle them.
If you have used electronics that you no longer want, arranging an e-waste pickup from a recycling firm is the way to go.
A recycling firm like Great Lakes Electronics Corporation can be your best bet. It’s an environmentally friendly decision that also helps create jobs, keep manufacturing costs down, and provide energy savings.
The same can’t be said for other options.
The worst option is to toss your used electronics out with your regular household trash. Electronics don’t belong in landfills since putting e-waste there runs the risk of land, water, and air pollution. Recycling eliminates that risk.
Besides, e-waste is anything but “trash.” Some people replace devices when they break, while others replace devices that are working just fine because a new version makes the older model seem obsolete.
Either way, whether your device seems outdated or has stopped working entirely, it’s still not “junk.” The parts within them – which can include rare metals like gold, silver, cobalt, and platinum, and high qualities of aluminum and tin – can be removed by recyclers.
Those parts still have a tremendous amount of value. Considering how many smartphones got discarded every year, that adds up to billions of dollars worth of precious metals being thrown away.
That’s also why people should avoid another option: hoarding their devices. In some instances, when people stop using their old smartphone or laptops, they toss them in a desk drawer or closet and forget about them.
But the same logic applies here: those devices, even when not in use, still contain materials that can be recycled and used to help make new products. The value of those metals never gets realized if they stay locked away in a drawer.
And finally, there is the option of selling used electronics online. But that’s risky. Many electronic devices contain personal data. Even if we delete it, much of that data could still remain there.
And used electronics are a major temptation for cybercriminals, who know how to locate any personal data after you delete it. Cybersecurity is a major concern whenever you throw away or sell your used devices online.
On the other hand, a recycling firm like Great Lakes Electronics Corporation can offer complete data destruction of all drives with their in-house data elimination processes.
Great Lakes Electronics Corporation believes in the importance of data security. The recycling firm provides the secure destruction of personal, sensitive, proprietary, or classified information, and will issue Certificates of Destruction and Certificates of Data Deletion to customers.
Here’s Why Recycling Is So Important
Since e-waste isn’t really waste, why does so much of it end up in landfills? It’s been estimated that 80 percent of e-Waste lands in landfills globally, leading to the loss of the precious metals within them.
The United Nations, which is working to promote higher recycling rates for e-waste, notes that the waste stream reached 48.5 million tonnes in 2018. If recycling rates don’t rise, that figure is expected to double. The UN has also estimated that e-waste’s global worth is $62.5 billion a year, higher than the GDP of most nations.
Recycling helps to create a circular economy for electronics, where the parts inside them can be used again and again to make new products. That helps manufacturers reduce their production costs, which can be passed on to consumers in the form of lower prices on the goods they purchase.
How Easy is an E-Waste Pickup for Recycling?
There’s nothing complicated about recycling e-waste. If you want to know what to do with your used electronics, it’s a great first step if you decide not to toss them in the trash.
And whether you’re an individual with a handful of used electronics or a business with hundreds of items that recently got replaced, it’s an easy and efficient process to have them recycled.
Great Lakes Electronics Corporation has an e-waste Pickup Service that applies whether you have 10 items – or 10,000. The firm will send out its fully insured team of removal specialists, armed with the tools needed to palletize, remove and transport your equipment.
Great Lakes Electronics Corporation provides a nationwide pickup service to help accommodate different offices or branches of a business or organization. Once the material is brought back to one of the Great Lakes Electronics Corporation’s facilities, it gets inventoried.
That’s where data security comes in. All sensitive information will be removed and destroyed from the items brought in. A Certificate of Recycling and Data Destruction will be issued for each shipment processed.
A commercial pickup is simple.
You can call Great Lakes Electronics Corporation at 888-392-7831 to request a quote, or send them a question through their Contact Us page.
Great Lakes Electronics Corporation has a careful de-manufacturing process where they take old electronics and break them down into their various components. All reusable components that still have value get recycled.
The de-manufacturing process involves taking all equipment and turning them into piles of smaller recyclable pieces, which are processed further for metals recovery. The process helps to keep lead, cadmium, lithium and other hazardous toxins out of landfills, since every piece of metal and toxin gets accounted for.
And every bit of e-waste that you deliver to Great Lakes Electronics Corporation contributes to a healthier, cleaner environment for all of us.
E-waste Pickup
The global consumption of smartphones, computers and other electronic devices is on the rise, posing a clear danger to human health every time used electronics end up in landfills.
The solution, though, is very simple: arrange to take your e-waste to a recycling firm like Great Lakes Electronics Corporation. The benefits of doing so are enormous.
Recycling remains the most effective way to keep e-waste from damaging our environment and our health, which is a message we all need to keep repeating.
Great Lakes Electronics Corporation has a great reputation for being trusted experts in the recycling and management of waste electronics and other metals. The unwanted equipment brought to their experienced team is recycled in a responsible, environmentally conscious way, by this family-owned and operated business that prides itself as being environmental stewards.
Great Lakes Electronics Corporation serves customers both large and small, from private customers to large corporations. Contact them today at 888-392-7831 to request a quote.