Greentech Lead America: The new regulation that mandates to keep e-waste out of landfills will boost the billion-dollar urban mining industry, says Green Technology Solutions, which explores rare earth minerals and precious metals production around the world.
Electronic products have become the fastest-growing portion of the solid waste stream in the U.S., posing a daunting challenge to government agencies that oversee landfills. Many discarded electronics contain toxic materials such as lead and mercury, making their improper disposal a risk to human health and the environment.
These risks have prompted 22 states to pass legislation since May 2009 to regulate e-waste recycling and ban certain electronics from landfills. Texas Rep. Gene Green has pledged to introduce a bill known as the Responsible Electronics Recycling Act (RERA) in this session of Congress that would restrict the export of e-waste to developing nations for dumping.
The bill could be a gold mine for recyclers like GTSO, and the company is working to develop new solutions to turn that trash into treasure.
Current recycling processes waste too many dollars and resources to be profitable. New technology promises to change that, which is why GTSO is pursuing new innovations geared towards efficient collection and separation of these valuable resources.
The plan could soon prove to be highly lucrative. According to the EPA, every one million cell phones recycled, 75 pounds of gold, 772 pounds of silver, 33 pounds of palladium and more than 35,000 pounds of copper can be recovered.
Urban mining is key to GTSO’s plans to compete alongside major international corporations striving for sustainable waste solutions, such as Industrial Services of America and Sims Metal Management.
Late last year, GTSO acquired the company Global Cell Buyers and soon after rebranded the company as Green Urban Mining to handle its domestic recycling and resale operations.
Recently GTSO partnered with Chilean recycler Chilerecicla to expand to booming South American e-waste market. Last month, GTSO signed a letter of intent with Chilerecicla as a first step toward expanding its recycling footprint into the booming Latin American market.