I have often wondered how exactly companies that recycle used electronics actually go about the business. I thought that perhaps they had employees that sat around dismantling the old gear and tossing components into different bins for recycling.

I guess I was wrong, it appears that a shredder is involved in the process. Recycling firm Electronic Recyclers International has unveiled the largest shredder in North America. The gargantuan shredder has a 900HP engine and weighs over 120,000 pounds. The shredder itself has a 7-foot wide and 6-foot long maw that can swallow all sorts of electronic devices.

The massive size of the shredder allows the recycling firm to process over 20,000 pounds of used electronics per hour. The device can shred most anything with a circuit board and a plug at slow speeds. The different commodities are separated from the shredder stream in some way.

Via Electronics Recyclers