Global demand for rare earth minerals will increase over seven percent a year, but now various reports suggest that prices for these materials will start trending downward.

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E-waste is a serious problem in all parts of the world. A UK-based start-up WEEE Systems has ambitious plans to tackle the growing issue of e-waste. They recently revealed that they are in the process of developing a prototype plant capable of providing closed-loop recycling services to leading electronics manufacturers. WEEE Systems wants to involve at [...]

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TerraCycle, partnering with Logitech, has launched the Keyboard and Mouse Brigade. The e-waste recycling program allows users to box up and ship old keyboards and mice and gain rewards. But will it succeed?

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Dell has stopped purchasing Renewable Energy Credits, central to its promise of becoming a “carbon-neutral” company, according to its 2011 corporate responsibility report.

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Do you have an old desktop or notebook just lying in the house? You’re not alone – there are estimated 68 million computers stockpiled in homes and offices across America. Apple aims to rectify the problem. Last week Apple announced it is expanding its reuse and recycling options to computers from any manufacture. According to [...]

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Turning computers off, or configuring them to sleep when inactive, can be a very simple way to reduce energy use. But because the computer manufacturing process itself has a significant environmental impact, arbitrarily turning computers off when idle is not necessarily the best way to amortize this impact over the life of the equipment.

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LG Electronics has partnered with Carbonfund to improve the carbon rating of their products. Their electronic goods from TVs, fridges and other products will start to carry the  CarbonFree logo next year. The certification indicates that the product is carbon neutral as achieved by a variety of offset projects. Their parent company, LG Group has invested $18-billion in research [...]

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Best Buy released their 2011 sustainability report last week, entitled “Our World, Connected.” It is a comprehensive report demonstrating Best Buy’s CEO commitment that “as the world’s largest consumer electronics retailer, we take our economic, social and environmental responsibilities very seriously.” At the same time it also presents some of the challenges retailers have when [...]

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NASSCOM Foundation is the social development arm of the internationally recognized trade body of the Indian IT outsourcing industry (IT-BPO). The Foundation aims to channelize the potential of the industry towards inclusive development of India. The Foundation is effectively harnessing IT to spread knowledge, increase employability, eradicate poverty, bridge the gender divide, and dispel isolation. This [...]

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Less than one percent of 34 rare metals studied in a UN Environmental Program (UNEP) report are recycled. Less than a third of 60 metals studied have end-of-life recycling rates above 50 percent, but less than one percent of 34 rare metals are recycled. Overall recycling rates are “discouragingly low,” according to the report. Lead, [...]

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Last week, Amazon joined the array of companies that offer an electronic trade-in program. To trade in an electronic device, a customer can click a “trade-in” button on Amazon.com, then print out a pre-paid shipping label in order to ship the device to Amazon for free. After Amazon receives the device, the customer receives credit [...]

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With state and local governments in a budget squeeze, product stewardship is starting to look more attractive as a means to save taxpayers money, aside from any environmental benefits. That could also result in some new opportunities for commercial recyclers. Though e-waste has gotten the most attention by far, states like Rhode Island are beginning [...]

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Last week Apple unveiled the iPad 2, which immediately became the center of a heated debate. No, I’m not talking about how amazing or totally disappointing its specs are; the debate centered around how green the iPad 2 really is. Some argue that this version is thinner and lighter and therefore it’s not only a [...]

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Last week ecoATM received US$14.4 million in a Series A preferred stock offering, led by Coinstar, Inc. and the venture capital firm Claremont Creek Ventures. That same day the company won a National Science Foundation grant, and rounded out its day of success with the securing of its first patent.

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Waste. The byproduct of consumer culture is the bane of environmentalists. We have chanted the mantra of “reduce, reuse, recycle” for more than a generation, yet our entire economy is based on wasteful consumption with packaging, material byproducts and the like rising exponentially throughout the Age of Convenience. As a result, waste processors have become [...]

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Secure TradeIn, a subsidiary of the leading global recycler and reseller of used cellular phones ReCellular, is prepared for a massive recycling effort thanks to Verizon’s iPhone coup. The company has an “e-cycling” arrangement with Verizon that could pay out as much as US$10 million to consumers who purchase a Verizon iPhone.

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The constant evolution of technology has been breathtaking to behold, but it does have some dark sides. Not the least of these is the mind numbing frustration generated by having dozens of types of incompatible power cords for various mobile devices. For years it seems, even within the same brand or product family, cord types [...]

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This post is part of our year-end “year in review” sustainable business writing contest. We’ve asked 3p readers to submit their own thoughts about the state of sustainable business in 2010. More information about the contest is available here. All submitted articles will be available on this page. Voting will happen in January! By Aimee [...]

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By Connie Kwan Electronics are here to stay.  Unfortunately, so is E-waste, and it’s only going to increase in the coming years. The separation of E-waste into useful materials continues to be a challenge.  The best way to reduce is, of course, is to put less into electronics to begin with.  The following interview from [...]

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Silicon Valley-based ECS Refining, in business since 1980, has long addressed the issue of e-waste in California. Now the company, which has been adept at turning trash into treasure, launched Ecollective, a partnership that will start with an operation of 94 e-waste collection points up and down the Golden State. Non-profits, as well as small and medium-sized businesses, are participating in the program through serving as hosted drop-off locations.

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TechTurn is an industry leader in technology recovery, refurbishing and remarketing. BusinessEarth talked to TechTurn founder and CEO, Jeff Zeigler, about starting and scaling a responsible company and opportunities in the reuse industry. In 1999, Jeff Zeigler discovered a problem and a business opportunity. “As Y2k approached, I saw a huge event about to happen. [...]

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WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme) has researched consumer behavior and released a report admonishing electronics manufacturers to push their customers to make “greener choices.” Their findings are not really surprising. Whether purchasing a Nano or a barge-sized flat screen television, features and performance rule. Energy savings and durability, however, have little role in the purchase decision.

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By Tamanna Mohapatra As an active Sierra Club member and a passionate technologist, I am well aware of the environmental concerns posed by the proliferation of e-waste in our society. As we grow more technology dependent, we are using up more natural resources in the production of new devices which constantly need to be exchanged [...]

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Nokia is the clear winner in Greenpeace’s 2010 Guide to Greener Electronics. Its score even increased to 7.5, up from last year. One of the reasons Nokia holds the top spot is for phasing out brominated flame retardants (BFRs), chlorinated flame retardants, and antimony trioxide in all new models of phones. Nokia’s CEO also issued [...]

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Procter and Gamble has recently announced a new program that bears a slight resemblance to what we used to call a treasure hunt, but the results P&G is seeing and the savings it’s achieved are no game. The new GARP program, which stands for Global Asset Recovery Purchases, is a quest to find someone, somewhere, [...]

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Numerous organizations and companies have committed to making the 2010 Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games more environmentally friendly. Whether it is the Olympic medals comprised partly of electronic waste or the Olympia electric ice-resurfacing machine, next to gold, green is the color of choice when it comes to the 2010 Winter Games. Coca-Cola is taking [...]

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The Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games have added another color to its coveted gold, silver and bronze medal lineup – green!  For the first time in Olympic history, the 2010 athlete medals contain metals from end-of-life electronic waste, commonly referred to as e-waste. Teck Resources, Ltd., a diversified mining company based in Vancouver, [...]

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While technology has become more affordable and readily available, discarded electronic waste, commonly referred to as e-waste, has become a great big problem.  That shiny new gadget you buy today will probably be obsolete tomorrow.  So what happens to all that electronic waste? According to a 60 Minutes segment, an estimated 130,000 computers are thrown [...]

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Who would have guessed that a store called the Nebraska Furniture Mart would be at the leading edge of consumer electronics life-cycle management? But it is. The store is hosting the first ecoATM machine, the brainchild of a San Diego startup that has found a way to make recycling consumer electronics easier—as well as valuable. [...]

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As electronic devices like cell phones, computer monitors and television sets become increasingly available – thus becoming one of the fastest growing components of the global waste stream – government and business leaders must find solutions for best managing these e-waste materials. This week, leading experts in the fields of electronics manufacturing, recycling and waste [...]

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