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Chicago Sun-Times - August 2004
P.C. PC disposal
BY HOWARD WOLINSKY Business Reporter
Every week, 200,000 to 400,000 pounds of discarded
computers, docking stations, TVs, telecom equipment
and other detritus of this electronic age are trucked
into Intercon Solutions, a recycling company on Chicago's
West Side.
 There,
on an assembly line run in reverse, crews of skilled
"demanufacturing" workers, paid $12 to $20 per hour,
strip down the gear that possibly only two years ago
was someone's shiny new tool or toy. In an average of
1-1/2 minutes, the workers take apart the computers,
separating central processing units, speakers, modems
and the like into the large bins.
These parts are turned over to private smelting operations
for recycling. In some cases, Intercon pays to dispose
of potentially hazardous materials, including lead,
chromium, cadmium, mercury and flame retardants in plastics.
 Brian
Brundage, 32, chief executive of privately held Intercon,
which has been recycling electronics since 1987, said
Intercon pays other companies to recycle these materials
according to federal guidelines. This money comes from
fees Intercon collects from its customers.
The company charges its customers to recycle their
hardware -- $20 for accepting each computer, including
a monitor, a central processing unit and printer. Intercon
also receives a small fee from smelters for recycling
iron and aluminum.
"People are surprised when they hear that companies
pay to have their computers recycled," Brundage said.
"But most consumer electronics actually have a negative
value. The costs involved with processing are not offset
by the value of the raw material constituents."
Intercon is part of a growing industry aimed at controlling
the mess created by a technological society. E-waste,
the potentially toxic residue, is the fastest growing
part of municipal trash. Discarded construction material,
including concrete and metal, make up the bulk of solid
waste in landfills.
The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, an environmental
group, estimates that consumer electronics accounts
for 70 percent of heavy metals, including 40 percent
of the lead, in landfills. And the problem has taken
on an international scope, as old computers have been
shipped to China and elsewhere in Asia, where environmental
hazards are being created. For example, an environmental
group found that copper was harvested from wires by
burning the insulation and releasing toxins into the
air.
Brundage said Intercon prides itself on "having zero
landfill tolerance. Everything we generate has raw-
or base-metal value. Everything we remove is reused."
The only way to get to these materials is by dismantling
the equipment so that smelters can reclaim materials,
such as lead solder or metals on speakers, he said.
The metal may be recycled to build cars and high-rises
and the plastics from computers can end up in plastic
"lumber" used to make park benches and decks, he said.
Most of Intercon's clients are Fortune 500 companies
and large organizations that feel a social responsibility
to recycle electronics they make or use, he said. His
customers include Bausch & Lomb, Peabody Energy, Ericsson,
the University of Chicago, Fermi National Accelerator
Laboratory/U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Department
of Defense.
But some major manufacturers, which he declined to
identify, also send Intercon equipment that simply has
been replaced by the newer technology, hoping to keep
the old equipment off the secondary market, where it
can act as a drag on new-equipment prices.
What about consumers?
Brundage said consumers are not considered a major
source for e-waste. In most jurisdictions, consumers
are free to toss out old computers with the trash. But
he said that likely will change in the years ahead.
"Consumers are not a core business," he said. "We're
not aggressively pursuing that market, but we're not
going to turn them away." Intercon will recycle electronics
for consumers starting at a minimum charge of $100 for
five computers.
Information on e-waste recycling is available at Intercon's
Web site at www.interconrecycling.com.
Brundage said: "Our company puts a great value on being
able to say definitely that nothing you send us will
ever be disposed of, and this is why we won't try to
resell your equipment to make a quick buck, or pack
it in a container headed for we know not where, but
this is also the reason for the nominal fee that we
charge."
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COMPUTER WASTE
Elements of a typical computer:
Silica 25% Plastic 23 Iron 20 Aluminum 14 Copper
7 Zinc 2 Other 9
SOURCE: Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition
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