Extreme Recycling is an electronic scrap recycling facility in Topeka. It is one of only five permitted electronic scrap processers in Kansas. The company processes an average of 168,000 pounds of electronic waste per month, 10 percent of which is collected directly from households and 90 percent of which is collected from businesses. Extreme Recycling has a process for each item that comes into their facility.
1. Receiving – Once a shipment arrives at the facility, basic information is recorded for the shipment. This includes originating location, received date, pallet count and weight of the materials. It is then assigned a shipment ID number that will follow it through all the stages.
2. Technical Audit – This process screens items that need data eradication or repairs and selects the final path of the item.
Every hard drive undergoes a certified Department of Defense disk wiping process which completely overwrites all information contained on the disk, unless the client specifically requests immediate destruction. All units are thoroughly tested and assigned an appropriate condition code. This condition code allows for resale of items that are functional. Any unit that is deemed to be obsolete or un-repairable is designated for recycle where the unit will be disassembled into various commodities.
3. Remarket – Items that still have value can be remarketed. The items are cleaned, repaired
and tested to ensure they are working properly. At that point, the item is marketed for resale on the company’s eBay page.
4. Recycle – Items that cannot be remarketed are sorted, separated and sent to disassembly for further processing. These materials are processed in the disassembly area and sent through shredding systems where they are reduced and separated to the commodity level. At that point, items are sent downstream to the appropriate vendor for that specific commodity.
Extreme Recycling recently achieved the e-Stewards Certified Recycler designation from the Basel Action Network, an environmental organization working to prevent global dumping of toxic wastes. The designation is awarded to companies that meet the most stringent health and safety, data security, environmental, and socially responsible standards in the electronics recycling industry. Extreme Recycling has the honor of being the first and only certified e-Stewards electronics processor in the state.
Visit the website for Extreme Recycling or check out their Kansas Green Teams page. They accept items from the public Mon. – Fri. from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. A list of accepted items can be found here.
Other state permitted processers include:
1. UNICOR – Leavenworth
2. Asset Life Cycle, LLC – Topeka
3. TECH, Inc. – Hutchinson
4. Starkey, Inc. – Wichita
Processes vary with each permitted facility. Please contact the individual facility for more information. Electronic scrap collectors do not need a permit if they are not crushing or grinding the materials.