ERI’s John Shegerian Calls for Ban of Shipping E-Waste Overseas in Newsweek Opinion Piece

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--John Shegerian, the Chairman and CEO of ERI, the leading international material resource recovery, ITAD and tech reuse and recycling company, has written an opinion editorial piece, published in Newsweek, describing a pressing need for a “Green Fence” policy or executive order that would obsolete electronics from being shipped overseas before their critical materials are recovered.

Shegerian’s article, titled “The Critical Minerals America Needs Are in Your Junk Drawer,” describes how the U.S., like many other western nations, has found itself in desperate need of the elements essential to the NVIDIA and SpaceX economy and broader commercial defense and aerospace economies.

Shegerian outlines how the solution to the mounting need for critical materials can be found in the end-of-life electronic devices that are too often shipped abroad.

“I’m grateful to Newsweek for giving us the platform to share what has become a pressing issue,” said Shegerian. “The very critical materials that the US seeks to bolster national security can actually be found in all of our junk drawers and garages. Outdated electronic devices can be responsibly recycled right here in the US – providing American resources, jobs, and economic resilience. It’s critical that legislators ban offshore shipping of these incredibly valuable resources.”

End-of-life electronics represent one of the largest untapped sources of rare earths and critical minerals in the world, yet many of these products are often discarded, and thus the critical materials within them are lost to waste streams. Unlike traditional mining, recovering rare earth from products already in circulation is becoming the most realistic approach to solving the supply chain constraints with speed and on shore.

Earlier this month, ERI announced the signing of a global strategic partnership agreement with Cyclic Materials, the rare earth recycling company building circular supply infrastructure for critical materials. The partnership is intended to form one of the largest rare earth recovery ecosystems in the U.S. by combining ERI’s nationwide collection network with Cyclic Materials’ commercial rare earth recovery and refining technologies to process high volume magnet-containing products. Initial commercialization includes multiple product categories that will create one of the largest commercial rare earth recycling feedstock portfolios in North America.

“What we once considered trash is actually a bona fide national treasure,” Shegerian wrote in the article, which can be viewed here.

ERI is the leading international material resource recovery, ITAD and tech reuse and recycling company. ERI is certified at the highest level by all leading environmental and data security oversight organizations to de-manufacture, recycle, and refurbish every type of electronic device in an environmentally responsible manner. It is the first company in its industry to achieve ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II certifications for security and data protection. ERI has the capacity to process more than a billion pounds of electronic waste annually at its eight certified U.S. locations, serving every zip code in the United States, with facilities and partners serving over 50 countries. ERI’s mission is to protect people, the planet and privacy. For more information about circularity, ITAD services and e-waste recycling at ERI, call 1-800-ERI-DIRECT or visit https://eridirect.com.