Which Electronics are Worth Scrapping? Here’s Where to Find the Highest Value Materials.

Only 12.5 percent of e-waste is currently being recycled in the United States. That means the other 87.5% of unwanted or broken electronic items like old computers, TVs, cell phones, printers, and other items end up in landfills. Not only is this terrible for the environment, but people who don’t safely dispose of these materials are also literally throwing money away. Properly recycling these old components is best for the environment, and can also be a great way to earn money. But if you have limited resources, such as a small space or not enough time to correctly sort or process all the ewaste you collect, you will want to focus on the electronics that will yield you the highest payday. With so many different electronic materials available to be recycled for cash, you may be left wondering which materials you should prioritize. The following list isn’t by any means the only items worthy of your time, but they are a great place to start in terms of maximizing your ewaste recycling profits.

3) Mobile Cell Phones

Cell phones are everywhere. Most consumers in the United States replace their phones fairly often. Some would argue that phones are replaced far more often than they need to be. In fact, according to the UN there are now more cell phones in the world than human beings to use them. This makes discared cell phones (and people and businesses willing to give them away cheaply or even for free) quite easy to find. Americans are getting rid of more than 300,000 cell phones every single day. Most of those phones are not being properly recycled.

Many discarded phones are actually still in working condition, albeit with slightly outdated technology. If a phone is still in reasonably good working and cosmetic condition, it can often be factory reset and sold on an outlet like eBay.

However, recycling mobile phones can also yield a decent profit. Cell phones are small, so many can be gathered withot taking up much space. Most phones contain gold, copper, palladium, and silver. The boards inside cell phones can net a tidy profit. Even the batteries can be removed and recycling for cash. If you do not wish to take a phone apart, most electronics recyclers will accept the phone as is.

2) Modern Desktops and Laptops

By modern, we mean any desktop or laptop made in the last 10-15 years or so. This seems very general, so why are these on this list?

There are two main reasons. The first is that these items, like cell phones, are everywhere. Most people you know have probably had several computers over the last decade. Some of these people may even have an old computer or three collecting dust in their basement or attic right now. These items are familiar to most people, even those who do not work in IT, and are very easy to disassemble.

The second reasons is the sheer amount of valuable parts inside of these computers. Most of them will include gold memory (which is selling for over $20/lb at the time of the writing). They will also have gold finger cards like video graphics cards, hard drive boards, motherboards, and more. Depending on the brand and model of the computer, some of the parts can be sold on a platform like eBay to people looking to refurbish their own units.

3) Vintage Computers

Back in the 1980’s and early 1990’s, computers contained a lot of gold. The processors in these old computers can be a literal gold mine. You are most likely to find 386/486 gold cap cpus and gold leg 8086 IC chips in these devices. These CPUs are selling for more than $150 per pound at the time of the writing. It doesn’t take a lot of these chips to end up with a full pound or more. Besides the CPUs, there are also plenty of other valuable components inside of vintage computers like RAM, motherboards, and other items.

These three electronic items are certainly not the only place to find valuable ewaste. However, you should be on the lookout for these materials in order to increase your electronics recycling profits. To learn more about our services or to get a quote, please contact us today.