Electronics Recycling

Oretech Inc., Phenix City, Ala., is exploring whether its technology is ideally suited to processing and recycling of e-scrap in addition to ore.

"This is a global environmental problem that is only going to grow with time, and shipping our country’s electronic waste streams offshore for disposal is not the solution," Oretech’s Chairman and CEO Stephen D. Cummins says. "We see entrance into this fragmented market as an excellent potential profit center for Oretech."

Oretech plans to immediately initiate testing on e-scrap feedstock. Based upon those results, management "will develop a strategic business plan and operating pro-forma for presentation to its board of directors," says the company.

Upon completion and approval of the business plan, management would move to raise the capital resources necessary to establish an electronic scrap demanufacturing and recovery plant in Phenix City.

Oretech claims its materials processing technology extracts specific minerals from diverse feedstock and raw materials without the use of harmful chemicals or the emission of environmentally unsafe gases. The company has been in operation since April 2003.

Lexmark International Inc., Lexington, Ky., has joined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Plug-In To eCycling campaign.

The program is a partnership between the EPA and businesses that seeks to collect used electrical and electronic equipment. The program’s primary goals are to reduce the amount of used televisions, cell phones, computers and printers that are landfilled; to safely manage some of the potentially hazardous materials that make up electronics; to recover and reuse valuable materials; and to reduce the pollution and energy tied to the production of new electronics.

Lexmark also has entered into agreements with electronics recyclers Envirocycle, Hallstead, Pa., and Nxtcycle, Mesa, Ariz., to participate in local and regional hardware collection and recycling events.