I have been in the SURF facility in SO. Cal. Remember the recycling triangle? Reuse, Reduce, Recycle. All quality E-waste recycling companies that are R2 need to maximize the reuse possibilities for all electronics.
http://asoft10298.accrisoft.com/r2solutions/r...-standard/
My point is that every facility does not have to be a destruction facility in the EWSI model. SURF is more of an asset recovery/reuse facility. While they do properly handle end of life, the SURF model is considered to be the first step in E-Waste recycling. Capture all the useable materials you can and recycle the rest. As they are a laptop specialist, they generate, all sorts of working parts for resale. The value of a working motherboard is exponentially more valuable than the recovery value of the smelted metals. As EWSI further integrates SURF, they may start to utilize and expand the facility to handle more destruction as opportunities arise. This would take a larger footprint and better logistical flows, but it could be done. Keep in mind that when done properly, Asset Management can be the most profitable part of an E-Waste recycler's business.
My two cents on SURF is to utilize the expertise in asset recovery and send materials that have some recovery potential there from the West Coast. As the material flows expand, add more downstream processing capabilities, or open a facility in Mexico for more manual separation at a better labour rate. I've also never been a gigantic fan of mechanical separation, i.e. shredding ewaste. Once you toss something down a shredder, there's no going back. Plastics, metals and all sorts of things are co-mingled and unrecoverable. Shredding should be only done to reduce the size of homogenous materials. Some of the worst e-waste recyclers are shred first, separate second operations, and their collateral waste is too high, in my opinion.
