Last Spring Bachus & Schanker partnered with Guaranteed Recycling Xperts (GRX) in a firm wide “Spring Cleaning” e-waste recycling effort. Employees brought in all types of outdated and broken electronic equipment or “e-waste” to be recycled. But, in light of the report “The Electronic Wasteland” with correspondent Scott Pelley which aired on 60 minutes this past Sunday, it begs the question, “how and where is our e-waste being recycled?”

You want to be green and think you’re doing the right thing by dropping off your e-waste at a recycling event in your neighborhood. But how do you really know if your old computer monitor, cell phone, blender or TV is truly being recycled in an environmentally safe method?

Jim Puckett, the founder of Basel Action Network (BAN), monitors e-waste disposal and is featured prominently in the 60 Minutes report. BAN, an international non-profit has set standards for environmentally safe disposal of e-waste and works to stem the tide of hazardous material being shipped from developed countries like the U.S. to under-developed areas like Guiyu, China.

GRX is the only BAN certified processor of e-waste in the Rocky Mountain Region and has always taken a leading position in industry efforts to establish higher standards for “electronic recyclers” and encourages legislative initiatives promoting a more responsible approach to the disposal of electronic waste.

Being a BAN E-steward means that GRX:
-Recycles all of the equipment they collect.
-Does NOT export any hazardous waste material to developing and/or non-OEDC countries.
-Does not landfill or incinerate any hazardous material
-Destroys all hard drive and storage devices and issues Certificates of Destruction to customers.
-Rejects the practice of exploiting low-wage prison labor in their demanufacturing process.

GRX is a recycler dedicated to the proper handling of your electronic waste. Currently they are processing over 500 tons of material each month. At GRX facilities, they completely break all items down to their constituent glass, metals, plastics, copper, circuit boards, and wire, etc. The raw materials are then processed domestically into recycled raw materials and ready to be re-used. Over 95% of all the raw materials they process end up back in the manufacturing stream. EVERY hard drive is physically destroyed via their industrial steel shredder.

So, go green! Let’s recycle our e-waste safely…use a BAN certified e-waste processor.