is it environmentally better to reclaim materials from used electronic goods or refine new stuff?

Answer 1

Electronic waste or E-waste, is the common name for electronic equipment and products that are broken, obsolete, discarded or have reached the end of their useful life. All electronic products will eventually become E-waste including televisions and monitors, computers, computer peripherals, audio and stereo equipment, VCRs, DVD players, video cameras, telephones, fax and coping machines, cellular phone, wireless devices, and video game consoles

The costs of frequent replacement, plus energy usage and hazardous waste disposal for some items, can add up quickly. Preventing waste in the first place is usually preferable to any waste management option, including recycling. The best option is to reuse systems and components that are still useful. In addition to being an environmentally preferable alternative, reuse also benefits society. Donating electronics is another way to extend the lives of valuable products and keeps them out of the waste stream for a longer period of time. By donating used electronics, the government allows schools, nonprofit organizations, and lower-income families to obtain equipment that they otherwise could not afford.

If items are no longer useful, recycling is the next best option. Recyclers recover more than 100 million pounds of materials from electronics each year. Recycling electronics helps reduce pollution that would be generated while manufacturing a new product and the need to extract valuable and limited virgin resources. It also reduces the energy used in new product manufacturing.

Answer 2

Some materials can be reclaimed and reused such as motors and other electrical components, others can be recycled into something different such as the metal casings.

In both cases it's environmentally better as there's no need for raw materials, less energy is used in processing and production and often there's less transportation - a lot of raw materials used in initial manufacture come from half way round the world.

Most raw materials come from mineral extraction of one sort of another - quarrying, mining, oil extraction etc. All are bad for the environment and in some cases the resources are running out so it's better the reclaim where possible.