E-Waste Won’t Be Solved by Disposal: It Starts With Design

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Discarded electronic waste containing earth minerals is overtaking landfills globally at an alarming rate as much of the tech industry and enterprises kick the disposal problem to the curb. Meanwhile, the waste stream contains critical raw materials needed across global supply chains.

The latest edition of the Global E-Waste Monitor reported that global e-waste contained approximately 68 billion pounds of metals in 2022, including significant amounts of critical raw materials. The estimated value of these e-waste metals in 2022 was $91 billion, with copper, iron, gold, and nickel the most valuable components.

The report found that formal recycling captured only $28 billion in metal value in 2022, with informal recycling contributing an additional $12 billion. Yet the bigger story sits beneath those numbers. When the estimated $78 billion in yearly health and environmental damage is included, e-waste becomes a net global loss of about $37 billion — potentially climbing to $40 billion by 2030.

Thomas Witherell, president of Data Recycling of New England, noted that solving the e-waste problem is more complex than just recycling for metal value. He argued that reports often neglect hazardous materials, the actual low content of valuable material in each item, and manufacturers’ trend toward using less gold in newer devices. Devices now yield the same scrap prices they did 15 years ago, while costs have risen, pushing many recyclers toward resale to remain viable.

“As a recycler, this sounds good on a macro level. But it’s not that easy. There are multiple factors to consider,” Witherell told TechNewsWorld.

Why Disposal Data Misses the Real Problem

Trey Closson, CEO of Amplio, an industrial asset recovery firm, added that many enterprises lack the incentive to manage e-waste effectively, as procurement focuses on production, making it easier to send assets to a scrapper or landfill than to dispose of them responsibly.

“It’s much easier to send a few truckloads of assets to a scrapper or a landfill than it is to ensure that every item is disposed of responsibly,” he told TechNewsWorld. “Inventory managers at plants don’t have the resources or the mandate to handle e-waste and other disposal the right way, so they don’t.”

The scale is significant. Every person generates about 18 pounds of e-waste per year. Larger, heavier equipment, like refrigerators, has a higher recycling rate than smaller electronics. Witherell said that referring to e-waste as a “gold mine” is a false narrative because most devices contain minimal recoverable value.

Global Progress Remains Uneven

Amplio’s Closson noted that scrap metal prices, while volatile, generally trend up, providing a base value for obsolete assets. Amplio’s AI software compares resale profit projections with metal scrapping costs to choose the optimal strategy.

“Often, products and machines that aren’t worth reselling whole can at least be scrapped for positive net value,” he said.

Ismael Velasco, founder of the Adora Foundation, sees innovation tackling e-waste, from reducing software-forced obsolescence to global hardware reuse. He noted that a few platforms aim to tackle this at the design stage. Companies lack generic, industry-specific software platforms to scale solutions.

 “Some industry consortia and companies create marketplaces to collect and recycle electronics. That’s as far as it goes today. But there are very few platforms that aim to do it at the design stage itself,” Velasco told TechNewsWorld.

Companies are on their own when it comes to recycling outdated equipment. Some work with consultants who are not necessarily electronics experts.

“It is essential to allow solutions to scale across use cases and companies and to ensure that measures taken balance correctly the form, fit, and functionality choices of the electronics device under question,” he said.

New Tech Sparks Recycling Momentum

Francis D’Souza, CEO of Banyan.eco, developed a platform for scoring recyclability and reusability, aiming to provide specs to electronics designers before production.

He noted that resource scarcity and geopolitical stress are embedded in the industry, and that rising volumes of discarded electronics are intensifying both environmental and economic pressures.

The goal is getting the specs in front of electronics designers before their devices go into production.

“Growing e-waste means a lot of valuable resources ending up in a landfill,” he told TechNewsWorld, noting that discarding hardware creates an environmental challenge through contamination from toxic materials.

“The economic impact of making newer devices that need more expensive materials as they become rarer creates a model that drives up consumer costs over time,” he added.

Procurement Holds the Key to Waste Reduction

Luke Crihfield, director of demand generation at Amplio, suggested that enterprises can reduce e-waste by implementing better procurement and recovery strategies. Planning for sustainability starts with procurement, which must build lifespan and redeployment planning into purchasing decisions across facilities.

Crihfield pointed to a market shift toward refurbished hardware driven by production necessity. If a refurbished part is the difference between a production line running or grinding to a halt, manufacturers will use refurbished and pre-owned parts.

 He added that many organizations have decentralized purchasing among different sites, where buyers are usually incentivized to minimize purchase cost rather than minimize surplus down the road.

“Reduce e-waste by never buying items that you won’t need,” Crihfield told TechNewsWorld. “Obviously, this is much easier said than done.”

Government regulation plays an important part. The adoption of the EU’s recent Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) could accelerate market demand by making products more sustainable from the start, increasing the appetite for subsequent reuse. He noted that e-waste is also a visibility and knowledge problem among enterprises.

Emerging Trends in E-Waste Recovery

Meaghan Kennedy, founder of Orange Sparkle Ball, said regulators, customers, and investors are increasingly pushing companies to be more transparent about how they manage devices at the end of their life. That pressure is driving improvements in tracking, product longevity, and repair-friendly design, and the broader adoption of take-back programs.

“They are recognizing that discarded electronics are not just waste but valuable sources of components and critical minerals,” she told TechNewsWorld.

Kennedy’s Penny Pickup program focuses on a persistent industry bottleneck: collecting devices before they become waste. The initiative uses zero-emission micrologistics — including autonomous robots and e-cargo bikes — to retrieve equipment directly from homes, labs, and offices.

“We solve the last-mile bottleneck. Most programs fail (early) at reaching homes, labs, and offices. That is our lane,” she said.

By moving recovered devices to nearby refurbishers and processors, the platform keeps value and jobs within the community while reducing the volume of electronics headed to landfills.

 Courtesy: www.technewsworld.com