| We use the most environmentally sound methods to recycle and de-manufacture IT asset components down to their base materials.
Plastics are either shredded or separated by color and bailed. All plastics are sent to audited and approved facilities that separate, clean, and grind the material into pellets. The plastic pellets are segregated by type – e.g., ABS, PSP, and PVC – utilizing a flotation process and sold to manufacturers as feedstock and/or blend.
Electronics are shredded to yield metals. Aluminum is sent to casting or secondary mills, where it is melted. Aluminum breakage is melted in a furnace and poured into a “sow” form. These mill-grade “sows” are sold to secondary processors, who alloy them for a specific use, or to manufacturers as feedstock. Copper from wire harnesses, cables, and CRT yolks is melted into anodes at a copper smelter. Steel and other metal alloys are sold to steel mills and foundries as feedstock.
Circuit boards are shredded and sent to a refinery for precious metals recovery. Board material is processed utilizing thermal and hydro-metallurgical processes that minimize waste; chemicals and wastewaters are recovered/reused, and air emissions from the melting furnaces are captured and used to make industrial-grade sulfuric acid.
Copper and/or aluminum core insulated wire is processed through a machine that chops the wire into small pieces. These pieces are fed into a de-stoning separator that uses mechanical and pneumatic forces to separate the metal from the insulation. Both metal and insulation are then segregated and sold.
CRTs are reused or recycled. CRTs that pass certain criteria are remanufactured as new monitors or TVs. Defective CRTs are crushed and recycled – the glass is sent to manufacturing plants to produce new monitors or shipped to lead smelters for use as a fluxing agent. Both methods support resource recovery.
Batteries are recycled for their metal content, which is extracted in smelters and refineries located in the United States and Canada. Reclaimed metals are used to make new batteries or other products, such as stainless steel.
Mercury-containing devices are processed through a retort system that thermally extracts a low-grade material, which is sent to permitted facilities for further refining using a quadruple distilled vacuum system to produce virgin mercury.
|
