Judging from the World Economic Forum’s document “A New Circular Vision for Electronics”, there is a revised global interest and opportunity in e-waste management. Manufacturers of electronics equipment need to believe that whistle blower groups will be out in force to ensure the $54 Billion opportunity is not wasted on bad actors disrupting already questionable e-waste flows.

To mitigate this risk, and ensure more visible downstream flows, trackers should be incorporated into the audit processes of all stakeholders - OEMs, Recyclers, Governmental and Non-Governmental organizations. This will enhance OEM takeback and Extended Producer Responsibility programs, Recycler downstream surveillance and help Governmental and Non-Governmental organizations see trends for further legal regulations, policies and/or prosecutions.

Forward thinking recyclers are seeing the writing on the wall and have started incorporating tracker programs into their auditing processes. However, many are wondering how to incorporate a sustainable program? How many trackers should be sent downstream? And what is the investment? These issues will be covered in a three part series.

Investment: The goal is to place a tracker in every Covered Electronic Device (CED). Then one will know the path of each CED, the efficiency of the path and the chain of custody at every step toward commoditization. Unfortunately, this is not economically feasible yet. However in talking to stakeholders in the recycling industry, most agree that to run a successful tracking program it would be reasonable to invest approximately 5% of the gross revenue toward this effort. This may be an expense, but if you consider the cost of paying for a possible EPA Superfund legal case, brand exposure mitigation, jail time and ultimately the risk of losing the business, the investment seems reasonable.

Each portable GPRS tracker plus services for a year can cost from $100 - $300. (E.g. global wireless 2G-4G, data storage, dashboard, reporting). Therefore, as mentioned, it is not economically feasible yet to deploy a tracker in every CED. However, there are a few sustainable methods of deployment that recyclers may want to consider now to starting a program.

Gaylord Base Method: Recyclers have found it feasible to have at least one tracker in a CED per Gaylord or two. Here is a typical homogenous deployment scenario to consider using this method:

As mentioned, each portable GPRS tracker plus services for a year can cost from $100 - $300. Let’s begin with the following tracking service scenario:

If we consider that a CRT has an average weight of 100 lbs, one Gaylord of ten CRTs will weigh about 1,000 lbs. So one tracker in a CRT CED per Gaylord can be thought of as monitoring 1,000 lbs of CRT CEDs. A cargo bin of 24 Gaylord’s will be about 24 trackers, which weighs approximately 24,000 lbs. Tracker services for twenty-four trackers cost will be ~ $4,800. For a sustainable process, we recommend deploying on a quarterly basis. Thus, the annual investment in this scenario will be about $19,200.

This method is ideal for heterogeneous deployments as well. For example, the cargo bin could be made up of several different CEDs such as CRTs, Printers and Power Supplies. Each CED type may be on different flow paths. Therefore inserting a tracker in each type of CED per Gaylord can achieve the same goal. Separate flow reports can be generated to gain insight into each flow channel.

This method can be expanded or reduced depending on budget and visibility needs. It is worthy to note that, if the tracker for the service are purchased in bulk, then the price drops. Also, as tracker technology improves and prices drop, more CEDs can be populated with trackers at the same investment point for more visibility. In the next article, we will explore another sustainable tracker deployment method. In the meantime, we would love to hear your deployment scenarios?