The Common Market partners with e-End to provide eco-conscious electronics recycling. We had an opportunity to take a tour of e-End’s facility and learn more about what they do and get a behind-the-scenes look at just how that recycling happens.
At 20,000 square feet, e-End does all electronics recycling in house, from receiving to any possible resale. Although they do not re-sell mobile phones, they do recycle them. (Check out their blog post to learn more about design for recycling and why recycling cell phones is difficult.) In order to recycle products, all data must be removed from devices. This is done by a degausser, a machine with a strong magnetic field that removes the small chips of data. E-End is one of only three facilities that has a degausser that is certified by the NSA, so you can be sure your data will not still be stored on the devices you recycle. They are also NAID certified, which means they conduct proper destruction of data on hard drives.
In addition to recycling household electronic devices, e-End has a contract with the Maryland State Police to perform destruction of contraband and material taken from cases. This helps to ensure dangerous items do not fall into the wrong hands or into our waste stream.
By partnering with e-End, we work together to keep electronic devices out of the waste stream.