HowStuffWorks "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle E-waste"

Another option is to recycle e-waste by taking your old electronics and electrical junk to a legitimate e-waste recycler who practices on-site recycling. The process typically uses an expensive recycling machine, which is fairly common in Europe but less so in the U.S. The machine smashes the electronics and takes them down a conveyor belt. The process uses vibrating screens and magnetic fields to extract different elements. Another common way involves workers (wearing proper protective gear) in a disassembly line, who take apart the electronics piece by piece and sort the contents. Then, different machines break the various pieces down to the point where they can be reused. Again, you might be asked to pay a small fee depending on what you bring in.

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