Is electronic equipment a nonrenewable resource?

Answer 1

Electronic equipment is made of many substances, including rubber, metals, glass and plastics. Metals in general are non-renewable. In general, plastics are non-renewable as they are derived from oil. Glass is renewable resource, but we are consuming fossil fuels to transform silicon particles (sand) into glass. For this reason, glass should be recycled.

More importantly, there has been a huge turnover of electronic equipment, creating hazardous conditions when disposed in incinerators or landfills. The disassembly of electronic equipment and re-use is a growing and important industry.

There is a worldwide effort to recycle or carefully dispose of the plastics used in all electronic equipment (from telephones, televisions, cameras, computers, fax machines, ipods, and many others) as there are chemical hazards (heavy metals in particular) to the environment when large quantities enter landfills.

You can find out if there are special measures being taken in your community for recycling computer equipment. All the major manufacturers of PC's are aware of "e-waste."

I've included some links.