What Will We Do With All That Electronic Waste?

Electronic waste is threatening to overwhelm our landfills. Despite the popularity of global recycling programs, we're a long way from solving the problem of what to do with the waste from discarded business and consumer electronic devices. As much as 85 percent of electronic products were discarded in landfills or incinerators last year. And the release of the iPhone 6 has brought the issue to a ''tipping point,'' says Linda Li, executive director and corporate vice president of strategy with Li Tong Group. On this episode, she discusses where previous recycling efforts have fallen short, and why we're still not deriving maximum use from the materials contained in old devices. Li argues for a ''closed-loop'' approach to managing e-waste supply chains – ''the Holy Grail of the recycling business.''