Electronic waste is growing two to three times faster than any other waste stream (i.e. paper, yard waste).

Americans will scrap about 400 million units of consumer electronics each year in this decade.

Between 2000 and 2007, as many as 500 million personal computers became obsolete and enter the municipal solid waste stream.

There is a large volume of cell phones retired each year, likely up to 130 million per year.

Yearly, on a national basis, over 100 million pounds of materials are recovered from electronics, including steel, glass and plastic, as well as precious metals.

Since CRRA began electronics recycling programs in 1999, more than 6.3 million pounds of electronics have been kept from being processed in trash-to-energy plants.

In the spring of 2006 alone, CRRA collected nearly 320,000 pounds of recycled electronics.

Only nine percent of the more than two million tons of consumer electronics thrown out in 2000 in the United States were recycled, despite the fact that personal computers, mainframe computers, monitors, telecommunications equipment, and consumer electronics such as televisions contain a wide variety of recoverable materials.

Electronics recycling companies started emerging in the recycling market in the 1990s. The top 10 firms process 75 percent of the electronics recycled in this country.

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