EWASTE EXPORT ECONOMICS

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• E-WASTE EXPORT ECONOMICS

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E-waste Export Economics

• What are the economic factors driving e-waste
  exports to the Asia-Pacific region?
• What is the actual economic differential in
  quantitative terms?
• What is the main factor behind to the economic
  differential?
• What are the real costs of operating in APAC
  versus the US?
• What conclusions can we draw purely from economic
  considerations?

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Economic Factors

• Economic Factors driving e-waste exports to the
  Asia-Pacific Region
• Proximity to end markets for commodities
• Significantly lower labor costs
• Lower regulatory compliance costs
• Increased opportunities for refurbishing and
  reuse
• Access to cheap capital
• Availability of large integrated processing
  facilities

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Economic Differential

• Local versus APAC Export Economics for IT
  Equipment
• (not including monitors)
• U.S Processing Costs 0.10 to 0.15/lb
• APAC Processing Costs 0.02 to 0.05/lb
• Shipping Costs to APAC 0.03 to 0.05/lb
• U.S. Commodity Values 0.10 to 0.25/lb
• APAC Commodity Values 0.20 to 0.35/lb
• Overall economic differential 0.15 to 0.25/lb

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Commodities Gap

• Why the large difference in commodity values?
• Manual separation of equipment into clean
  fractions yields higher value.
• Refurbishing and resale of higher percentage of
  equipment.
• Harvesting and resale of low value
  parts/components.
• Consolidation into large volumes of clean
  un-shredded fractions.
• Vertically integrated processing of plastics /
  metals.

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Labor and Facilities Costs

• Country Labor Cost Facility Cost Dismantle Cost
  (PC)
• USA 12.00/hr 0.50/sf 1.25/unit
• Hong Kong 5.50/hr 0.70/sf 0.75/unit
• Singapore 3.50/hr 0.65/sf 0.45/unit
• Thailand 1.00/hr 0.30/sf 0.10/unit
• Malaysia 0.95/hr 0.25/sf 0.07/unit
• Philippines 0.80/hr 0.35/sf 0.06/unit
• China 0.60/hr 0.40/sf 0.04/unit
• Costing assumes all facilities meet ISO 9001 /
  14001 standards and local regulatory requirements

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Export Economics

• Recyclable materials will find their way to the
  most economical processors.
• Commodity fractions will continue to move east to
  the end use markets.
• Mechanical systems cannot achieve the same grade
  of commodity fractions as manual processing at an
  equivalent cost.
• Higher levels of refurbishment and reuse will
  continue to drive export prices higher.
• U.S. recyclers cannot compete with the export
  market without a fee based system to close the
  gap.