Environmental Commitment
Our Corporate environmental, health, and safety office conducts on-going environmental, health, and safety compliance project management and internal auditing of all TCG facilities world-wide. As one of the very few electronics recycling firms with a full time global EHS staff, TCG has positioned itself to become a world leader in environmentally-sound electronics recycling.
Finding Innovative Ways to Protect the Earth
From lead to mercury, it's no secret that there are a lot of ecologically damaging elements in today's electronics. As the rate of electronic obsolescence accelerates, landfill and pollution problems increase. But simply recycling is not the answer. Many recyclers use processes that do not allow for full recovery of all damaging or valuable elements, creating a negative impact on both the earth and your bottom line.
At TCG, we believe in taking extraordinary care to recycle, recover and reuse every part of what's sent to us. In fact, virtually 100% of our intake is indeed recycled, recovered or reused, with less than one percent - all biodegradable - sent to the landfill. With this level of commitment it should come as no surprise that we are ISO 14001:2004 registered, a rare accomplishment in the field of electronics' recycling. Because we comply with this gold standard of Environmental Management Systems, we meet or exceed all local, regional, national and international regulations at our many locations around the globe.
How much e-waste is in the waste stream?
Used consumer electronics represent less than two percent of the municipal solid waste stream. In 2005, discarded tv's, pc's, peripherals (including printers, scanners, faxes), mice, keyboards and cell phones totaled about 2 million tons. Of that, about 80-85% (1.5 to 1.9 million tons) was discarded, primarily in landfills.
What are the substances of potential concern in electronics?
Lead, mercury, cadmium and brominated flame retardants are among the substances of concern in electronics. These substances are included in the products for important performance characteristics, but can cause problems if the products are not properly managed at end-of-life.
Lead is used in glass in TV and PC cathode ray tubes as well as solder and interconnects; older CRTs typically contain on average 4 lbs of lead (sometimes as much as 7 lbs in older CRTs), while newer CRTs contain closer to 2 lbs of lead.
Mercury is used in small amount in bulbs to light flat panel computer monitors and notebooks.
Brominated flame retardants are widely used in plastic cases and cables as a fire retardant; the more problematic ones have been phased out of newer products but remain in older products.
Cadmium was widely used in NiCad rechargeable batteries for laptops and other portables. Newer batteries (nickel-metal hydride and lithium ion) do not contain cadmium.
References: "General Information on E-Waste" U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. <http://www.epa.gov/wastes/conserve/materials/ecycling/faq.htm>.