Articles
Up to 99 percent of laptop materials can be recycled
Jan 22, 2024
Tuulia Virhiä
There is still surprisingly little talk about responsibility in the IT industry. The biggest reason is probably people's ignorance, and we at SwanIT are raising awareness. We do great things with IT that make other industries greener. But we have completely forgotten that our IT industry itself is really environmentally burdensome.
Over five million kilograms of electronic waste leave Finland every year. Illegally. And that figure has been verified, so in reality, the figure is certainly much higher. Another significant world political figure is that the EU procures 98 percent of critical earth metals and minerals from China. China is seeking power, and it has a lot of power in the EU electronics industry. And that power should be dismantled. We already have the materials here. We have a lot of material that we could use, but we don't. The third, sadly interesting figure is that we sell half a million business laptops abroad every year, just for business reasons. We are losing the whole idea of a circular economy just by doing that. We probably won't get that material for the second round at all.
Up to 99 percent of laptop materials can be recycled
The fourth interesting figure is that theoretically, we could recover 99 percent of the materials in laptops. Of course, it depends on the operator, but your laptops and mine contain a huge amount of important material for recycling. Plastics, glass, and, for example, conflict minerals such as gold, tin, and zinc. A large part is on the motherboard.
And when we consider the current global figures, only 15 percent of electronic waste is recovered and recycled. There is a pretty big gap between reality and potential.
At SwanIT, we collect electronic waste lying around in companies' warehouses for better care, responsibly.
Book a free consultation meeting — and we'll tell you more
The financial benefits are therefore truly significant when a company switches to a responsible IT approach. At each of these stages, SwanIT is the expert who tells you directly when equipment becomes obsolete and which equipment is really worth replacing.
Contact us for a free assessment meeting with a low threshold. Let's take your company to the most responsible and economically sensible equipment purchases.
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