Taiwan is the producer of more electronics per capita than any other country, and now they are expanding their electronics recycling efforts to keep up. At 42 percent, their national household recycling rate is one of the highest in the world, and their industrial waste recycling rate is nearly double that at 80 percent. In 2012, Taiwanese waste companies earned $2.2 billion in revenue.
“Recycling became huge because of the electronics firms,” explained Chen Wei-Hsian, the secretary general of the Formosa Association of Resource Recycling, an industry organization. “That’s why it’s grown from about 100 recycling outfits to over 2,000.”
A Cleaner Future
In the 1990s, Taiwan’s high production rate pushed an overflow of trash, including both household and hazardous industrial waste, into the streets. Few waste-processing facilities were in existence, and there was little care taken to mitigate the release of toxins associated with recovering precious metal materials from electronic waste.
It wasn’t until 1998 that the government began encouraging recycling, and now the tides have turned. According to Ding Guo-tsuen, CTO of Super Dragon Technology, “When the gold price jumped to $1,800 to $1,900 an ounce, they got savvier about what they were throwing away. They used to pay us to pick up their refuse — now we pay them to collect it.”
Recycle Responsibly with Cash for Electronic Scrap USA
If you have been unsure how to properly dispose of your unwanted or obsolete electronic scrap, Cash for Electronic Scrap USA is here to help. We make the disposal process as easy as possible for you–all you have to do is fill out our simple form to request a free shipping label and send in your e-scrap. We’ll recover an precious metals and recycle the rest of the materials responsibly, and you’ll get a check in the mail. It’s that easy!
