Recyclecology.com, Inc.
Recyclecology.com, Inc. offers collection, recycling, data destruction, auditing and reporting services for unwanted, end of life, obsolete, excess and defective electronic equipment in California, Florida, Texas and Latin America.
Company details
Find locations served, office locations
- Business Type:
- Service provider
- Industry Type:
- Material Recycling
- Market Focus:
- Internationally (various countries)
- Year Founded:
- 1998
- Employees:
- 1-10
- Turnover:
- less than 1,000,000 €
About Us
What We Do
Recyclecology.com, Inc. offers comprehensive electronic equipment recycling and data destruction services in the US and from 10 locations overseas. We process all types of computer, television, telecommunications, cellular and document creation and management equipment. Our staff comes to your site, collects the equipment, transports it back our closest center, creates accurate inventories and descriptions of what we collected, erase all data on all devices or media and reports our activities back to you!
How It Works
It all starts with an email or phone call from you. We need to know where the equipment is, a general idea of what type of equipment you have, if it is already palletized and an estimate how much you have, we don’t need an exact piece count, we just need to know what size truck to send and how much labor it will take to properly load all of the equipment. If the equipment is outside the US, the process is a little different, for we have the flexibility to erase the data and recycle the items locally (our preference for global carbon reduction efforts) or to bring them back to the US and do it here.
Examples
What are real world examples of our work? Our work differs slightly, depending on each location, as we are able to stage collection events and shredding in some places, but we collect, destroy data, demanufacture equipment and report in all locations. We work with many types of companies, from a member of the public that drops off equipment at any of our locations, to large companies with global locations, we work with governments, retailers, companies in the food, beverage, resort and lodging industries, manufactures of computers, telecommunications and telephone equipment, banks, insurance companies, entertainment companies, unions, server farms and global manufacturers in aviation, automotive and food.
The Regulations
Some companies will tell you that new laws have made it illegal to dispose of electronics in the landfill or incinerator, but it has been illegal since 1973, it was just not commonly known or enforced. The Resource Recovery Conservation and Recovery (RCRA) act of 1973 made it illegal (for a business) to dispose of a listed waste or a waste that exhibits a characteristic (four were listed, but toxicity is the one related to unwanted electronics). The test is called TCLP, the toxic characteristic leachate procedure simulates the landfill conditions of age, wear and weather on materials and assess their toxicity in the laboratory.
Since 1973, US law has prohibited the disposal of most all electronic equipment in municipal solid waste streams. In response the problems of Love Canal, NY, the US Congress passed RCRA, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act that outlines what is hazardous waste and what is not. The act specifies what can and cannot be disposed of as normal waste by four methods, if the waste exhibit one or more of four characteristics:
Ignitable (Flashpoint º F)
Corrosive (aqueous pH < 2 or > 12.5)
Reactive (normally unstable, undergoes violent changes without detonating, water reactive)
Or the important one with electronics, Toxic (exceeding the regulatory limits for contaminants under the TCLP or “7-11 test” analysis).
Each characteristic has a standard, a limit. Lead for example is set at 5 milligrams per liter when the shredded items are exposed to a light acid bath, (the TCLP standard) the resulting leachate needs to be less than 5 ppm. If it is greater than 5, the items cannot go to a landfill or incinerator and must be either disposed of as hazardous waste and may be recycled. So, even a keyboard, mostly plastic, can fail the TCLP and falls under this regulation, if not recycled. So, what is the conclusion for most electronic equipment? That if it is not recycled, it must be managed as hazardous waste at great expense.