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Have you ever wondered what goes on inside of those earth saving electronic recycling plants, where tons of e-waste gets broken down and processed daily. Well, Erica Ogg of ZDNet News was recently granted exclusive access inside HP’s “Grindhouse”, a 200,000-square-foot recycling facility just north of Sacramento, which processes 4 million pounds, or 24,000 tons, of electronic hardware per month. Here is Ogg’s account of what he saw:

“Inside the massive facility, pallets of gray copiers are stacked next to shrink-wrapped packages of mismatched monitors awaiting slow, painful deaths. But before they get to the grinding machine, most electronics first have to face a horde of men and women armed with air guns and screwdrivers.
Hunched over their desks in blue lab coats, the recycling center employees swiftly strip machines of their innards, separating them for the grinding process. One petite, affable-looking woman made quick work of a stack of black notebook PCs–folding the screen open, snapping the plastic hinge with a loud crack, removing the LCD screen, then flipping it over to remove both the main battery and smaller button cell battery. The PCs’ plastic casing, batteries and screen are all divided and ground separately.
The hazardous materials–mercury bulbs in old CRT televisions and monitors, batteries, and inkjet and laserjet cartridges–are teased out and sent elsewhere to be melted down right away, but the rest face the granular shredder, which sounds as painful as it looks.
We tourists got to see the grinding action up close. Climbing the metal steps of the gigantic machine, we were met with a cacophonous rumble. My notebook and hands were instantly covered in a fine sheen of dust, or more likely, the remnants of unwanted technology. The first step of the process minces the material into 4-inch shards. The precious metals, like gold, silver, platinum and copper, are collected and sent to a smelter, where they are melted down and sold for reuse. What’s left rumbles by on a conveyor belt for a second grind, this time into 2-inch pieces. A giant magnet then picks out the small pieces of steel.
Next is another conveyor belt with positively charged tubes on each end. The tubes create an Eddy current, which causes the aluminum pieces to bounce around, separating itself from the plastics.
The end result is a 5,000-pound box of silicon, glass, and plastic confetti, which is shipped out to a separate contracted facility and reused to make auto body parts, clothes hangers, plastic toys, fence posts, serving trays, roof tiles–and maybe even your next PC.”

HP’s recycling efforts are rumored to cost the enterprise, “millions of dollars” a year, said Kenneth Turner, HP’s manager of product takeback operations. “It’s not profitable, but it’s worth doing for our reputation. Ensuring that the process is done the right way–not putting hazardous materials into the ground–also lessens HP’s vulnerability to environmentally oriented lawsuits”, he added. I think it’s a noble effort on their part and I hope it pays off for them in the long run.
Something tells me that their efforts will be soon be rewarded when our consumption culture matures into a culture of ‘reuse’. HP will have a leg up, and hopefully continue to lead the way on that front.

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