Ever wonder what happens to all the laptops, cell phones, and other electronics people use after they’re done with them? Some of them end up at a recycling site like CompuCycle Inc.’s operation in Houston. Every month, roughly 2,000,000 pounds of discarded electronics pass through the gates of the facility, where they are either refurbished and sent back out to work or broken down into reusable parts and elements.

A laptop with a busted screen? They’ll fix it up and send it back into the workforce. A five-year-old PC with a failed hard drive? They’ll stick in a used one that works. In the U.S. alone, every year some 150 million phones, or more than 400,000 a day, are buried in landfills or burned in incinerators.

According to the U.S. environmental protection agency, for every 1 million cell phones that are recycled, 34,000 pounds of copper, 772 pounds of silver, 75 pounds of gold, and 33 pounds of palladium can be recovered. The United Nations reported in 2019 that discarded electronics and electrical equipment were worth $62.5 billion annually. The report also said “there is 100 times more gold in a ton of e-waste than in a ton of gold ore.” CompuCycle turns around about 6,500 devices a month that can be used again, including laptops, phones, and hard drives.

Possible Preaching Angles:

God also reclaims, refines, mends, and restores his people using grace, forgiveness, and healing (Hos. 6:1). His methods include using heat, pressure, and trials “so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (1 Pet. 1:7)