COM2 Recycling Solutions
140 Fullerton Ave , Carol Stream, Illinois, United States

In 2002, Saheem Baloch founded COM2 as a small storefront electronics repair and refurbishment company in Lombard, IL. As business grew, so did the inventory of unsalvageable components and parts. It soon became apparent to Saheem and his partners that they would either have to entrust the scrap to someone else to recycle or develop the capacity to do it in house.Not only did they launch into full-scale electronics recycling, but by 2011 COM2 Recycling Solutions became the first e-recycler in Illinois to achieve certification to both responsible electronics recycling standards. In 2012 COM2 also opened a second operation in Mississauga, ON, just north of Toronto, to service its growing customer base.

Today COM2 operates two processing facilities in Carol Stream, IL, encompassing almost 300,000 square feet; a large portion of which was recently added to accommodate the new CRT recovery system. The original resale and refurbishment store in Lombard, IL continues to service the local community and provides a drop off location for residential recycling. The company also manages a network of 45 drop off centers throughout the mid-west and another 6 in the greater Toronto area.For over 13 years, COM2 Recycling Solutions has provided quality electronics recycling, resale and asset recovery services to businesses, industry, governments and institutions throughout North America. With primary operations in the Greater Chicago area and in Mississauga, Ontario, COM2 Recycling Solutions provides customized, turnkey electronic asset resale, destruction and recovery services.

Services include:

• Electronic asset appraisal
• De-installation and removal
• Data sanitization or destruction
• Resale
• Parts retrieval
• Asset inventory reports
• Recycling

ELECTRONIC ASSET RECOVERY

Upgrading equipment? Moving? Every organization faces challenges with obsolete equipment disposition. The sooner you put your equipment into the hands of resale and recycling experts, the better your financial results will be.

COM2 Recycling Solutions: Your electronic asset recovery experts

• Worldwide resale channels for tested, working equipment and parts
• Custom data security/destruction options
• Fully auditable, in-house, domestic recycling solution

CRT GLASS RECYCLING

Cathode ray tubes, or CRTs, are the heavy leaded glass tubes that were used in old TVs and monitors. With new CRTs no longer manufactured in the US, the seriously constrained recovery market has lead to widespread stockpiling and landfilling of the hazardous, but valuable material.

Enter COM2 Recycling
COM2's new recovery process uses silica and oxides found in CRT glass as a substitute for raw materials required to manufacture decorative glazes for ceramic tiles. The leaded and non-leaded glass from CRTs is carefully mixed with other ingredients to create a product that uses fewer natural resources, requires less energy to produce than traditional glazes and results in a product that is safe for the environment.

COMMUNITY RECYCLING EVENTS
COM2 works with communities throughout the US and Canada to bring convenient, safe, responsible electronics recycling to residents. Our experience from having conducted hundreds of these events takes the burden off community coordinators and ensures successful events that encourage residents to continue recycling electronics and to tell their friends and neighbors to do the same!

COM2 provides:

• Pre-event advertising/publicity support
• Development of a detailed operational plan for collection and logistics
• Provision of safe collection and storage units
• Management and handling of materials at the collection site by COM2's OSHA trained staff
• Collection reports including weight of materials collected
• A Certificate of Recycling for all materials collected

For equipment that no longer has value or must be destroyed for security reasons, COM2 offers a fully accountable and auditable domestic recycling service focused on maximizing scrap value and minimizing environmental and data risks. COM2's new recovery process for products containing cathode ray tubes (older TVs, monitors, etc.) is the first process in North America to repurpose CRT glass in place of raw materials in ceramic tiles.

ELECTRONICS RECYCLING: Efficient, Safe, Economical

Since its inception in 2002, COM2 has processed over 100,000,000 pounds of equipment at itsChicago-area and Ontario, Canada electronics recycling facilities. This experience has helped us develop processes and procedures for efficient, safe and economical recycling all types of e-waste.Equipment that has no market value, or that has been designated for destruction-only by the customer, is received into COM2's disassembly areas where any valuable parts are removed for resale (when authorized) and remaining scrap is segregated for final material recovery. Our staff is trained in accordance with OSHA and environmental regulations as well as the requirements of the e-Stewards for electronics recycling.

COM2 Recycling Solutions: Creating New Products from old TVs and Monitors

Over the past few years, a growing number of environmental violations at e-recycling facilities have come to light where recyclers simply stockpile CRT glass rather than paying to send it for recovery. Some of these companies have abandoned their business, leaving the mess and the financial liability for their customers to take care of.COM2 began processing CRT glass at its Carol Stream, Illinois facility in 2009. After separating and cleaning the glass, the processed glass was sent to downstream facilities for final recovery. COM2 soon realized the constraints and costs of sending glass off site for final recovery were becoming prohibitive and decided to invest in its own CRT glass recovery process.

How it Works
After CRT glass is separated and cleaned of phosphors and other possible contaminants (metal, plastic, etc.), the glass is reduced in size (~1/4"). Both leaded and non-leaded glass are carefully mixed with other ingredients, replacing feldspar, sodium carbonate and quartz which are all required for production of frit and are all contained in CRT glass.In traditional frit and glass manufacturing, these materials must be subject to high temperatures and fused. Since CRT glass has already been vitrified, the energy for that step in the process is eliminated. The lead contained in the funnel portion of CRT glass makes the glass highly fusible, further reducing the amount of energy required for the overall manufacturing process.