OSHKOSH, (NBC26)-- Our country generates close to seven million tons of electronic waste a year, that is more than any other country. One company in Northeast Wisconsin is tackling this issue to reduce our footprint.
Sadoff E-Recycling and Data Destruction in Oshkosh recently entered the electronic recycling business three years ago. They are no stranger to recycling materials, their parent company has been recycling metal products for over 70 years.
Having businesses like this help consumers because in 2009, Wisconsin enacted senate Bill 107 which states that it is illegal to throw away electronic into the trash. The badger state is one of 28 that have e-waste laws.
“Once it’s in the garbage someone takes care of it. That’s not the case. A lot of times it goes into a landfill and sometimes it can’t go into a landfill because it has hazardous materials in it.”
Most of the hazardous materials in these products are lead and mercury. LCD screens have mercury in them. CRT monitors have lead. Dumping this material into landfills can cause environmental consequences which is why it is important to dispose of your products properly.
So, where do you dispose of old electronics? The DNR has a helpful search tool where you can select what items you need to recycle and where these items were used. A list of drop off facilities will be listed on the map.
The facilities then send the material to sorting centers such as Sadoff. They have a partnership with many area businesses that deliver material to this warehouse and then it gets sent to other companies for proper recycling after sorting.
“We work with partners in the industry, we vet out, and make sure they are doing what they’re supposed to do, we send it to them for the end of life portion, otherwise we can take anything else, and turn it into another product. “
Several million pounds of e-waste a year are sorted through this facility alone. Once a shipment is brought in, It is weighed. After, materials are sorted out into different commodities. In a computer there are valuable precious metals such as gold, silver, platinum…the list goes on. While it looks like a labor-intensive process, it’s much easier to recycle these materials versus mining for them.
“There is more precious metals in circuit boards that are out there, that have been created, that are being recycled than there are that you can get out of a strip mining operation. You find more gold or silver or platinum in these types of materials than you can doing a gold rush type of thing.”
You can drop off most items free of charge, but if your electronics have hazardous materials in them, you will likely have to pay a small price which helps in proper disposal. While no one likes to pay to recycle, there is a cost for everything.
“I grow up in the time where let’s recycle recycling is a good thing. Recycling is awesome, it’s the way we should be treating our planet. But when I grew up there was no cost to recycling. We are just going to separate our stuff and there’s no cost. Nobody saw that there was a cost behind it. Two years ago, when China decided to stop taking all this material everybody started to see that there is a cost.”
For more information on locations where you can recycle your electronic waste, click HERE.
