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Dumped Computers Call For A New Breed of Recyclers

Several companies focus on intercepting harmful electronic wastes.

By Larry Moniz

Imagine a huge landfill brimming with 315 million dead, yet still very deadly, computers. According to the non-profit National Safety Council, that”s the number of discarded computers the U.S. will have by 2004.

The thought of all the toxins in those computers-lead, nickel, mercury and other metals-leaching into the soil gives environmentalists nightmares. New Jersey, with 3.5% of the U.S. population and potentially 12.3 million dead computers glutting its landfills, has yet to fully cope with the problem.

The federal government has regulations in place that bar businesses from dumping computers in landfills, but among the states only Massachusetts has legislation prohibiting the dumping of all computers in landfills.

Right now, there are six licensed computer “de-manufacturers” in the Garden State, according to Robin Heston, principal environmental specialist at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. There are also four computer recycling depots and one company authorized to act strictly as a refurbisher or reseller of obsolete computers.

The old adage about one man”s trash being another man”s treasure could be the motto of the de-manufacturers. They are all part of a pilot project which Heston says will provide data for the DEP to determine what regulations and legislation are needed to prevent this latest toxic assault on New Jersey”s environment.

Heston says the Department of Environmental Protection is trying to get regulations in place. “We have drafted a proposal to make computers a universal waste,” she says.

She explains that under current regulations the lead, batteries, mercury and other metals in the computers constitute hazardous waste and must be disposed of in the proper manner. “They don”t have to be sent to a hazardous waste facility, but instead can go to a recycling facility.” she says.

Once data is collected from the pilot program, Heston says legislation will be drafted that will regulate the future disposal of computers. The de-manufacturers now operating under the pilot program include NewTech Recycling in Bridgewater and Lakewood-based Supreme Computer Wholesalers. Their names aptly sum up their operations. The other companies are HessTech in Sayreville, Advanced Recovery in Belleville, Public Service Electric and Gas in Gibbstown and Paulsboro Recycling in Paulsboro.

NewTech Recycling President James Entwistle explains: “We”re a closed-loop de-manufacturing facility broken into three phases.” The first is logistics, including the receipt of products from companies disposing of outdated computers from municipal or county computer recycling programs or from drop-offs by private citizens. “Product evaluation and sorting” comprise the second phase, according to Entwistle. That means deciding if the computers are refurbishable, resalable or must be scrapped via de-manufacturing.

Whenever possible NewTech restores the computers and resells them through brokers. If the machines aren”t worth fixing then they”re broken into component parts such as cases, power cables, ribbon cables, memory chips, motherboards and other circuit boards. The computer monitors are disassembled and the cathode ray tubes (CRT) are broken down, with reinforcing metal bands removed. The so called “guns” at the back of the tubes that direct electron flows to the screens contain recyclable steel and nickel.

The CRTs have a 30% lead content in the glass composition that also must be recycled and sold to glass recyclers. Because of the volume of CRTs, NewTech first smashes them in a compacting machine that reduces them to sizes that meet the recycler”s needs. Apart from the CRTs, all the surplus components are sold in bulk to recyclers for metal extraction. The patented technology for the compacting machine was developed by Joseph Kostick, who started NewTech back in 1995. Kostick sold the company to Entwistle three years ago but has stayed on as facility manager.

NewTech has a 40,000-square-foot facility with 10 full-time employees and focuses on recycling in large volume. “We have a large inflow and outflow of product here. We do anywhere from 750,000 to a million pounds per year of volume here,” says the NewTech president. “We de-manufacture all the monitors in the Northeast for Bell Atlantic, Horizon Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Booz-Allen & Hamilton and the IRS.”

NewTech currently is doing about $1 million in annual sales but Entwistle expects that to grow rapidly. “Within three years I”d like to double the business to $2 million a year and $5 million in five years. The sky is the limit as far as growth.”

Mitchell Runko, director of systems analysis at Supreme Computer Wholesalers, evaluates all of the equipment his company acquires. “Every computer is broken down unless it can be sold off intact. We”re doing recycling as well as reselling. We buy warehouses of equipment from competitors or corporations that are upgrading.”

AT&T is a client, and the company”s trucks travel as far as San Diego to pick up computers. Supreme is growing fast and is moving to an 18,500-square-foot facility, far larger than its current 7,000 square feet. “We process at least 10,000 to 12,000 computers per year, and I think that might even be a low estimate,” says Runko.

Right now, recycling or de-manufacturing computers is 30% of Supreme Computer Wholesalers” business, but that could change quickly.

“A lot of the growth is going to depend on legislation,”” says Runko. “If the states and towns pass the legislation, this business could grow to be a giant.” n

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