Electronic Waste Recycling Facts - Tatooine Electronic Systems

Full service electronic waste recycling.

WHY should electronics be recycled?

Well, for two main reasons. The first one is to keep them out of the landfill. There are significant amounts of horrible things in electronics that shouldn't be in a landfill, such as lead and mercury. Besides, these items will take a VERY long time to decompose, IF they ever do! Secondly, it is important to recover all the usable components in electronics through recycling. Plastic, glass, copper, gold, and other metals can all be successfully made into new things!

E-waste hazard chart (PDF)
Toxic TV’s and Poison PC’s (PDF)
Montana DEQ

What happens to electronics after they reach Cheyenne?

When electronics arrive at the Tatooine Electronic Systems processing facility in Cheyenne they are taken apart by hand by trained technicians and then sorted into categories of recyclable material. Those categories are plastic, steel, copper wire, leaded glass, aluminum, and printed circuit boards. After disassembly and sorting these materials are then shipped to specialized facilities for further processing.

Plastic: Plastics are baled and shipped to Plastic Recoveries in Salt Lake City, UT. The plastic is sorted by type and color and granulated. Then it is shipped to manufacturers for use as raw plastic feed stock to make new electronics plastic, plastic pallets, plastic totes, or many other plastic products.
Steel: Steel is recycled with Atlas Metal & Iron. Steel is sent to steel mills around the nation or anywhere else it is needed to be melted down and made into new steel.
Copper Wire: Copper wire is sent to Atlas Metal & Iron. Copper wire is sent to wire manufacturers who separate the insulation from the copper, melt the copper down, and make new wire
Leaded Glass: Leaded glass is sent to either Luminous Recycling in Denver, CO or CRT
Processing in Jonesville, WI. There the glass is broken down and made ready to be either re-used to manufacture new CRT tubes or to be smelted to recover the lead from the glass.
Aluminum: Aluminum is also recycled with Atlas Metal & Iron. It is melted down to be made into anything from pop cans to window frames to aluminum foil.
Printed Circuit Boards: Printed Circuit Boards contain tiny amounts of gold and other valuable metals, as well as copper, steel, and aluminum. They also contain lead in the form of solder. These boards are sent to Umicore Precious Metals Refining in Antwerp, Belgium for recovery of these metals.

Any hazardous materials encountered during the disassembly process like mercury or radioactive Americium are treated at one of the following hazardous materials treatment facilities: Beartooth Environmental, Clean Harbors Environmental Services or Mountain States Environmental.

Tatooine Electronic Systems Call us: 406-861-4920 Located at: 21 No. 15th St., Billings, Montana

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