We’re all aware of the huge impact that our over usage of scarce resources is having on the environment. The excessive use of hydrocarbons in the petroleum industry is sending the price of crude, both heavy and light, into an upward spiral. This is probably the most well-known resource that’s being abused, but it is certainly not the only one. Two years ago we saw a sudden increase in the price of steel, copper and gold. This was brought about by a sudden and somewhat unexpected growth in the Chinese economy. This in turn meant that the price of gold was subject to an increase, making it more viable for recycling companies to market their services. With an increasing number of new electrical products that require these resources being released into the market quite rapidly, it is hardly surprising that there has been something of a big boom in the computer recycling industry in the past year. It seems ridiculous that people are only just beginning to reuse these materials, especially when you consider that a large percentage of the world’s gold is actually in mobile phones. In fact the average mobile phone contains about 24mg of gold, 250mg of silver, 9,000mg of copper, 3,800mg of cobalt, and a number of various other metals. While these quantities might not seem like they amount very much, when you consider how many unused mobile phones are in the world it soon begins to add up. By disposing of your computer correctly you can ensure that these precious resources don’t go to waste. Many companies that offer this type of service will not just deal with the circuit boards - they will also recycle the steel cases, the chassis of the computer, the floppy drive chassis, the hard drive cases, and drive platters, selling them as scrap metal. It can be off-putting receiving a charge just to get rid of something that you have previously bought, but when you consider the details of the service that’s being offered it is in actual fact quite reasonable. Legitimate computer disposal companies have to pay for transportation, disassembly, separation, shredding, refining of fragments; as well as state of the art capital intensive processes that use wind, magnets, lasers, heat, water, shredders, vibrators and weights to sort through waste fragments. All in all it is a very expensive process. The main reason that this process is so expensive is because the waste is often hazardous; mixed up with the valuable metals are some problematic ingredients such as lead, mercury, cadmium and flame retardants. This is why the disposal of such items should be carried out by professionals. If you need to dispose of some outdated electronics there are a number of companies online that offer old computer recycling and old computer monitor disposal.
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