The Unsung Hero of the Energy Transition: Electronics Recycling

Zero-emission electricity and carbon capture usually grab the spotlight in the global transition to a more sustainable world. Yet, also making a big impact are unsung heroes like electronics recycling.

In 2022, a record 62 million tons of e-waste were generated, polluting the air, soil, and water of fragile ecosystems worldwide. Less than a quarter of it was safely recycled. With global tech turnover rising, annual e-waste levels can fill 1.5 million 40-ton dump trucks – enough to circle the Earth’s equator.

Fortunately, innovative companies like SK Group’s SK TES are confronting this pressing but under-discussed challenge head-on.

SK’s global IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) sites handle millions of tons of electronics recycling, and they’re investing in more. In March, the company celebrated the opening of a new ITAD site in Fredericksburg, Virginia, part of a larger strategy to expand electronics recycling and repurposing in the United States.

Here is how e-waste became one of the environment’s most pressing risks – and how global ITAD efforts are rising to meet it.

E-Waste: A Pressing Environmental Issue

“[E-waste] is a global time bomb,” said Professor Ming Wong, director of the Croucher Institute for Environmental Sciences, in a keynote address more than 10 years ago at the 2013 International CleanUp conference.

In the decade since, that ‘time bomb’ has only grown. Electronics are now the world’s fastest-growing waste stream, increasing by 33% just last year. The rise of AI, powered by large data centers that will eventually need to be replaced and upgraded, makes the need for industrial-scale e-recycling even more critical. 

E-waste poses several threats.

Pollution is the biggest: e-waste is toxic, non-biodegradable, and threatens the environment and public health. It can leach toxic chemicals and heavy metals, like lead and mercury, into the soil and groundwater.

Energy loss is also a significant concern. By failing to reuse electronics and batteries, we waste enormous amounts of energy. Recycling one million laptops saves the energy used by more than 3,500 U.S. homes in a year.

Electronics recycling efforts are growing, but not quickly enough. From 2010 to 2022, e-waste generation outpaced recycling by a factor of five. Annual e-waste is now projected to reach 82 million tons by 2030. The world needs to catch up — fast.

The ITAD industry, tasked with recycling and repurposing discarded IT equipment, is key to reducing that waste and protecting the planet. The challenge is scaling up current efforts.

SK TES, now operating over 40 recycling and repurposing facilities worldwide, might just have the roadmap.

How Can the ITAD Industry Rise to the Challenge?

SK TES started in 2005 as a small ITAD consultant in Singapore. Today, it services more than 100 countries and operates the largest global network of ITAD facilities. Their growth strategy focuses on two key challenges: global integration and innovation.

First, there’s the global imperative: e-waste is a worldwide problem, impacting both fast-growing emerging markets and industrialized, mature economies. 

To address this reality, ITAD providers need to deploy an integrated approach to cover the entire tech ecosystem. 

SK TES’s global network partners with multinational clients to manage enormous volumes of IT assets. The company’s US expansion is part of this critical effort, especially as the federal government seeks to grow domestic e-waste recycling capacity.

Second, there's the pressure to innovate. ITAD providers can't just scale existing solutions — they need new, more efficient ones, too.

SK TES exemplifies this with its proprietary Energy Storage Systems (ESS) technology, which transforms used batteries into commercial energy storage. This closed-loop solution uses second-life batteries to store excess energy from PV panels, extending the life of IT materials and reducing the need for new raw materials.

Another significant component of SK TES’s work is IT asset recovery — finding opportunities to reuse corporate and enterprise technology assets. By refurbishing, reconfiguring, and upgrading used IT assets, SK TES’s team often circumvents the need for electronics disposal and recycling entirely. Old electronics can be redeployed within a company, effectively closing its loop on tech turnover.

Electronics Recycling & The Global Transition

IT spending is on the rise, and the advent of artificial intelligence is driving record growth in the hardware and semiconductor markets. Every year, the record for annual e-waste production will be broken — and with high-tech turnover rates, energy waste will break records too.

ITAD solutions are already central to the fight against e-waste, and with nearly 225 million pounds of equipment processed, SK TES provides a blueprint for the industry to meet the challenges ahead.