Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Step1
Keep your electronics to be recycled separate so you don’t throw them away by mistake and they end up in landfills.
Step2
Choose a recycling facility that uses the appropriate technology and ask appropriate questions. There is nothing wrong with inquiring about their recycling procedures and finding out how specific components are used.
Step3
Find out whether the facility will use plastics found in batteries as fuel and then recover the metals as alloys rich in cobalt, nickel, copper or iron.
Step4
Expect the alloys to be refined and separated into metal compounds and pure metal. Facilities that use this technology do not add hazardous waste into the environment. Another positive feature about this type of technology is that it uses a special gas cleaning system which employs the use of plasma technology (this technology is cleaner than simple incineration). Trash goes in, and the result is purified gas or metals depending on its composition.
Step5
Inquire whether the metals and metal compounds are re-used. To understand the recycling of these metals, think of the fact that one facility transforms cobalt into cobalt dioxide. A different plant receives it and converts it into lithium cobaltite. Lithium cobaltite results in the manufacturing of new lithium ion batteries. Thus, the cycle starts all over again.
