E-World Recyclers Leads The Way In Fight Against Electronic Waste

Each year an estimated 100 million computers, monitors and television sets become obsolete in the United States, making e-waste the fastest-growing portion of the nation's garbage.

E-World Recyclers LLC in North San Diego County is leading the way in dismantling old computers, televisions and other discarded electronic products with a unique process to separate CRTs (cathode ray tubes). Using heated wires and compressed air, workers at the E-World Recyclers California facility, which can process in excess of 40,000 pounds of CRTs a day, separate the glass that contains lead from other glass and metal components, a process not used by any other recycler in the United States.

Each year an estimated 100 million computers, monitors and television sets become obsolete in the United States, making e-waste the fastest-growing portion of the nation's garbage leaving toxic substances like lead, cadmium and mercury to contaminate the underground water system.

"We have a process that separates leaded funnel glass from the non-leaded panel glass," said Bob Erie, CEO and co-founder of E-World Recyclers LLC. "It allows us to put a fully-de-pressurized CRT tube inside a machine. And then we wrap a wire just below the frit lines on the glass panel. In the end, our process cleanly separates the non-leaded panel glass from the leaded funnel glass and produces two clean streams of raw material that go back out into re-use and will be made into new products."

As participants in the State of California's Electronic Recycling Program, E-World Recyclers offers Cost-Free disposal on many electronics for businesses, households, non-profits, educational institutions and government agencies within California and will be opening a 35,000 square-foot East Coast facility in early 2008. "E-World Recyclers is dedicated to the proper disposal of electronic waste," Erie said. "Our vision is to be the leader within the electronic recycling industry, promoting and maintaining the highest level of environmental integrity and product stewardship."