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Electrical and Electronic Waste Recycling

December 8, 2008 by  
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Electrical and electronic items such as televisions, refrigerators, washing machines, handphones, computers, printers, and batteries are increasingly being disposed as waste after use. These waste are also known as e-waste and they are posing an environmental problem as most of these waste products contain toxic chemicals and can affect the environment and our health if they are incinerated or landfilled.

In addition, there is also the problem of e-waste being dumped in developing countries and recycled in an unhealthy and pollutive manner. Watch this video on the problem of e-waste:

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In Singapore, there are no official figures on the amount of e-waste generated and recycled. But Singaporeans are known to be big users of electrical and electronic products, thus we can imagine the substantial problem of e-waste here.

Let’s take a closer look at e-waste recycling:

E-Waste Recycling in Singapore

Used electrical and electronic items are sold to the karang guni men, secondhand traders and shops, or traded-in when buying the new items. The used items are refurbished and sold locally or exported overseas for reuse.

The used electrical and electronic items, and electronic scrap from industries are also sent to local e-waste recycling facilities where precious metals such as gold and platinum are extracted, and recovered materials such as plastics are sent to local recycling companies.

Watch this video to learn about extracting gold and other metals from e-waste:

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Collectors, Traders and Recycling Companies for E-Waste

To find a recycling collector or someone who wants your e-waste, you can use our online business waste exchange, Waste is not Waste. We connect businesses and organisations that generate waste materials with those who want the materials, thus helping both parties save time and money while helping the environment.

Visit Waste is not Waste to learn more about us, the benefits and how it works. Remember that waste is not waste, but potential resources to be used again.

What Can I Do

First, reduce your e-waste by asking yourself whether you need to buy new stuff like IT equipment and handphones frequently. Remember to Buy and Use Only What You Need.

If you have some electrical and electronic items that you don’t want but are still in good condition, try to Give It Away or Sell for Cash before recycling them.

You can also use the following e-waste recycling collection services:

1. Nokia collects old Nokia handphones, handphone batteries and accessories at any Nokia Care Center, and sends them for recycling. Watch this video on the Nokia recycling programme:

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2. Motorola has an ECOMOTO Takeback programme to collect back old Motorola handphones, batteries, chargers and accessories at selected collection points.

3. The Dell Recycling programme provides collection of unwanted Dell computer equipment (computers, printers, scanners, etc) from homes, and collection of any computer equipment (all brands) from business customers.

4. The HP Planet Partners programme provides recycling collection of computer equipment (computers, servers, printers, fax machines, digital cameras, etc) from commercial customers. The programme also provides a cartridge recycling service for everyone to return empty HP print cartridges to the HP office or to recycling bins at retail stores.

5. Toshiba offers collection of used notebooks from end users and also offers consumers a drop-off for their used Notebook Batteries at any Toshiba Notebook Service Centers.

6. The Canon Cartridge Recycling Programme provides collection of Canon toner and ink cartridges at four Canon locations.

7. Brother has a cartridge recycling programme to collect Brother ink cartridges by mail through a free postage-paid Brother recycling envelope. You can also recycle used Brother ink, toner and drum cartridges by walk-in at selected locations. Brother also collects back their cartridges directly from corporate customers.

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Comments

41 Comments on "Electrical and Electronic Waste Recycling"

  1. Electrician St Helens, Merseyside on Thu, 30th Apr 2009 8:19 pm 

    Great post, the fact that conservation and recycling is so high on so many peoples agenda at the moment is great. There’s a Yahoo group called freecycle I’m not sure if its just in the UK but thousands of people offer all sorts of unwanted goods rather than dumping them. Absolutely awesome way of recycling!!

    Cheers
    John

  2. Eugene on Mon, 4th May 2009 5:00 pm 

    There’s also a Freecycle group in Singapore and it’s quite active too.

  3. Electrical Rewiring on Thu, 20th Aug 2009 4:57 pm 

    This blog is very informative post.Thanks for sharing this.

  4. Shaw on Wed, 30th Sep 2009 2:21 pm 

    Thanks for this post! Didn’t know MOTOROLA had recycling programmes. Now I can give them my old moto phones.

  5. Shaw on Wed, 30th Sep 2009 2:24 pm 

    Any ideas on how and where to recycle batteries? And what is done to recycle them?

  6. Eugene on Wed, 30th Sep 2009 3:20 pm 

    If you are refering to household batteries, there’s no collection for recycling. See NEA’s explanation http://wildsingaporenews.blogspot.com/2008/04/producers-have-recycling-schemes-in.html. For handphone and laptop batteries, see the recycling programmes in the post.

  7. Andy on Thu, 12th Nov 2009 11:57 pm 

    Hi,great article, and i guess e-waste is indeed a pertinent topic here but I would like to just know how do people return their used handphones (or other electronic goods) which may not fall under the purview of these companies (such as HP, Brother etc) to be recycled..

    I don’t suppose they can just throw it into the recycle bins as well..Is the “karang guni” the only solution for these other goods to be returned for recycling?

    Furthermore, is there a way of knowing what happens to all these reycled electronic waste? for example what percentage is recycled, what percentage is too damaged to be recycled etc..Don’t seem to be able to find any such figures on NEA website..

    Thanks alot!

  8. Eugene on Fri, 13th Nov 2009 2:05 pm 

    Hi Andy, I think most people sell or give their used handphones and other goods to karang gunis and second hand traders. Some of the recycling programmes in the post do take back other brands of handphones. For detailed figures of electronic waste, you would have to consult NEA.

  9. Andy on Sun, 15th Nov 2009 7:53 am 

    Thanks alot Eugene! =)

  10. Bala on Fri, 4th Dec 2009 11:10 am 

    Hi Eugene,

    hope all is well and thanks for your message. I am curious to know more & wondering if i can get more informaiton from you. should you be interested please let me know.

    Thanks in advance.

  11. ST on Wed, 9th Dec 2009 1:22 pm 

    Hi Eugene and all,

    I have done spring cleaning recently and I have a lot of chargers (phones,laptops, etc) and wires and also portable CD players and MD player and old handphones( which i am not sure still working), that i need to let go. Do u know where i can drop off the whole load for reuse/recycling?

    cos i cannot afford to go around singapore to drop off the old motorola phone then the old ericsson phone individually.

    Really appreciate any answers from anyone!
    thank you!

    cheers
    ST

  12. Eugene on Fri, 11th Dec 2009 1:35 pm 

    Hi ST, try selling them to Cash Converters if they are still in working condition. Or you can use your recycling bag or bin under the National Recycling Programme. For your phones, the recycling programme by Nokia takes in all brands, just drop them at Nokia Care Centres.

  13. Nicole on Thu, 21st Jan 2010 4:03 pm 

    I am curious why they don’t have recycling bins for electronics around in singapore along with the other recycling bins, it would make it much easier for people and more people would probably take the effort to recycle them.

    What happens to the electronics that is thrown in the normal trash bins?

    Thank you.

  14. Eugene on Mon, 25th Jan 2010 12:33 pm 

    Most people usually sell their used electronics and not put them in the recycling bins. If there’s a National Recycling Programme where you stay, you can use the recycling bag or bin for the electronics. There are also recycling bins by companies as mentioned in the post.

  15. Herald on Fri, 29th Jan 2010 7:53 pm 

    Hi Eugene,

    Could you please tell, is it possible for me alone
    to extract metals from electronic boards.

    Thank you.

  16. Eugene on Sun, 31st Jan 2010 5:41 pm 

    Hi Herald, are you saying that you wish to extract the metals yourself? You would need strong chemicals to extract the metal from the circuit boards. Not advisable.

  17. filly ho on Fri, 5th Feb 2010 5:31 pm 

    Hi< i have an intention to set up a small e waste plant in INDONESIA,
    could anyone give guidance on the steps and capital needed ?
    Thanks a lot
    rgds

  18. filly ho on Fri, 5th Feb 2010 5:33 pm 

    Hi,I need favour…

    I intented to start an e-waste biz in Indonesia.
    would be very appreciate if you could guide the steps along and also the estimated capital needed ?

    (excluding land and warehouse / plant as we have it alredy)

    THANK YOU

  19. bharath on Tue, 16th Feb 2010 6:30 pm 

    Its a good that there is a business which can recycle the e waste.I am from India and like to set up an e waste industry which can cater in a state in india.

  20. eunice on Sun, 28th Mar 2010 5:15 pm 

    Can we recycle batteries in singapore? And where can we dispose them off?

  21. Eugene on Fri, 9th Apr 2010 10:00 am 

    Hi Eunice, if you are referring to household batteries, there’s no collection for recycling. See NEA’s explanation http://wildsingaporenews.blogspot.com/2008/04/producers-have-recycling-schemes-in.html. For handphone and laptop batteries, see the recycling programmes in this post http://www.zerowastesg.com/2008/12/08/electrical-and-electronic-waste-recycling/.

  22. liyana on Sat, 10th Apr 2010 2:07 pm 

    ohhh nice siak

  23. beverly on Mon, 12th Jul 2010 12:17 pm 

    From what I understand, most of the household e-waste (like TVs, PCs, notebooks, etc) are sold to the karang guni men since there aren’t any accessible collection points for e-waste (as far as i’m aware, again). Considerig that, do you have any idea what the karang guni men do with the e-waste they collect? Do they dismantle it and sell of the valuable metal bits to scrap metal collectors? do they sell them to recycling companies? Do you know what proportion of household e-waste in singapore is actually recycled? Thanks.

  24. Eugene on Mon, 12th Jul 2010 6:29 pm 

    Hi beverly, besides selling to the karang gunis, e-waste are also sent to the organisations listed in the article or other e-waste collectors found at http://app2.nea.gov.sg/topics_collectrade.aspx. We don’t have data on the household e-waste.

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  26. choonsearn on Sun, 25th Jul 2010 7:16 pm 

    do you think that the collection of e-products by karang-guni is actually considered recycling. Because they would usually amass them and try to fix them. If they fail to fix them, then they would just keep them aside don’t they? Then do you think it is a environmentally healthy way to treat the e-products? Also these karang-guni actually only accept specific products? Sorry for spamming the question ><

  27. Eugene on Wed, 28th Jul 2010 1:27 pm 

    Hi choonsearn, I think the karang-guni sell the items to second-hand traders, who repair and refurbish them for resale. So strictly speaking, this is considered as reuse. Recycling is when the items are collected and broken down for the recovery of precious metals and other material.

  28. choonsearn on Thu, 12th Aug 2010 12:29 am 

    ohhh true. Thanks! hmm totally unrelated to this article, was wondering if u have any inkling on how NEA calculate NRP participation rate? Cause i was quite surprise to see that it is at a high 63+% considering that a survey that i did showed that not many people participate actively in this initiative

  29. Eugene on Mon, 16th Aug 2010 12:49 pm 

    Hi choonsearn, you have to check with NEA on their methodology

  30. Joanne on Sun, 29th Aug 2010 1:43 am 

    Freecycling as Eugene mentioned is coordinated via yahoo group. Simply register and email what you have to offer or what you want to have. Lots of electronics given away for free here.

    Give and take for free! Moderators in the group makes sure everything behaves. There is a group almost all over the world. SG group here: http://groups.freecycle.org/SgFreecycle/description

  31. Adopt Green IT and Green Computing Practices | Green Business Times on Thu, 2nd Sep 2010 12:57 pm 

    [...] through your IT vendor who usually can take them back. If they don’t, check out this guide to electrical and electronic waste recycling at Zero Waste [...]

  32. Christine on Fri, 8th Oct 2010 9:46 pm 

    i finding recycle website to recycle my sony camera …
    Do you have any idea of web that do provide this service?

  33. Eugene on Sat, 9th Oct 2010 12:42 pm 

    Hi Christine, if it’s still reusable and you wish to give it away, try the organisations at http://www.zerowastesg.com/2008/12/08/give-it-away/. If not, try the collectors at http://www.nea.gov.sg/cms/rcd/Multiple-Electrical%20Items-Furniture-Clothing.pdf.

  34. Benjamin on Sat, 9th Oct 2010 6:12 pm 

    I have some old electronics (toys, wires, gadgets, etc.) that do not function any more and are not reusable, but I want to get rid of it in a more environmental and responsible manner than simply throwing it down the rubbish chute. Is there any convenient way to get rid of it, like an electronic waste dropoff point nearby? Or if I separate it from my normal rubbish, will it be taken care of by the rubbish collector?

    I live in Pasir Ris, by the way.

  35. Eugene on Tue, 12th Oct 2010 3:01 pm 

    You can try checking with the electrical item collectors at http://app2.nea.gov.sg/topics_collectrade.aspx.

  36. khaled altubaji on Wed, 16th Mar 2011 5:51 am 

    we can send you about 10 tons electronc scrap monthly
    contact us if you are interesting

  37. Have we gone too far to turn back? | Wentographie on Sun, 20th Mar 2011 3:31 pm 

    [...] from here and [...]

  38. francesca segre on Thu, 12th May 2011 9:43 pm 

    Do you have any updated information about Ewaste? Is there any new policy/location whereby I can drop off used batteries or small household electronics? I can’t imagine any company is going to bother with my 30 used batteries and 2 broken electronic toys, but there must be a place where everyone can contribute their ewaste. Collectively, the large pile is worthwhile!

  39. Thomas on Wed, 31st Aug 2011 5:15 pm 

    Dear Sir/Madam,

    Do you know any commpany want to buy used IT products? How about faculty DVD players?

    We would like to sell off all these items.

  40. Eugene Tay on Thu, 1st Sep 2011 4:52 pm 

    @Thomas, you can check with the collectors at http://app2.nea.gov.sg/topics_collectrade.aspx

  41. sanjeev on Wed, 18th Jan 2012 4:28 pm 

    Hi,

    I know organizations in Singapore who are willing to dispose off electronic waste for which I am finiding vendors. Can you provide details about the vendors?

    Regards
    Sanjeev

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