Obsolete electronic components, such as monitors, contain hazardous materials like lead, mercury, and flame retardant chemicals that can pose health risks if not recycled properly. Responsible monitoring of recycling is important to avoid negatively impacting the environment. Recycling facilities refurbish usable monitors and defabricate unusable ones to collect useful electrical components and raw materials. Sensitive data storage devices should be completely destroyed to avoid compromising personal data.
The importance of monitor recycling quickly became apparent, as more and more obsolete electronic components are thrown out and replaced each year. The advent of flat screen televisions and computer monitors could eventually reduce the need for monitor recycling. Older monitors usually consist of a thick glass screen in front of a cathode ray tube (CRT). The glass and CRT combined can hold up to eight pounds of lead, depending on the size of the monitor. When lead-containing materials are disposed of in landfills, the lead can leach into soil and groundwater, potentially posing health risks to humans.
Lead is not the only hazardous material found in electronic equipment. Mercury, cadmium and flame retardant chemicals are present. These chemicals pose a particular danger to human health because they bioaccumulate. This means they build up in our bodies instead of being filtered out. Heavy metals such as lead and mercury are known to be linked to birth defects and nervous system damage when unhealthy levels of exposure occur.
Responsible monitoring of recycling is of great importance, due to hazardous materials thus avoiding negatively impacting the environment on which we depend. While electronic equipment such as a CRT monitor poses no health risk when used by a consumer, it should not be dumped or incinerated in the same way as organic waste, due to the potentially harmful materials it contains. There are many companies that responsibly monitor recycling by separating hazardous materials for reuse or safe disposal.
When a monitor is taken to a recycling facility, it can be refurbished and sold, if it is determined that it is still usable. If not, it goes through a process called defabrication, where it is reduced to its original raw materials. Some useful electrical components can be collected as part of monitor recycling, while materials such as plastics, glass and precious metals undergo further processing. This involves shredding these materials into small pieces and melting them down. Advanced air filtration systems in many facilities can accomplish this step without toxic emissions being released into the air.
When recycling electronic devices that may contain sensitive data, such as computer hard drives and mobile phones, they should not simply be treated as scrap. The reality is that even deleted files still exist on a hard drive until they are written completely. Hard drives and other data storage devices should be completely destroyed as part of the recycling process to avoid compromising important personal data.
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