Electronic Waste and Circuit Board Recycling

Circuit boards, servers, telecom equipment, computers and electronic scrap, bought from registered businesses and priced by grade rather than gross weight.

What Makes Electronic Waste Valuable

Electronic waste is bought for what can be recovered from it, not for what it weighs. Gold, palladium, silver and copper sit in the boards, connectors and contacts, and the plastic and steel around them carry almost nothing. Two pallets of identical weight can differ several times over in what they return.

That is why mixed loads are sorted and priced by category rather than quoted as one figure. A server board, a consumer motherboard and a power supply board are three different products with three different rates. TDA Midwest sorts your material, grades it, and shows you how it graded out before anything is settled.

A load quoted on gross weight alone is priced on its steel and plastic — the part that carries nothing. The chassis and housings are handled as scrap and priced as scrap. The value is in the boards.

Also buying power supplies, wiring harnesses, electronic control modules from vehicles and industrial equipment, and telecom backplane. Ask if your material sits between categories.

Preparing and Sending Your Load

Separate by type where you can

Sorted material prices better than mixed, because mixed loads are priced cautiously until they are broken down. If you do not know the grades, send it unsorted — we will grade it and show you the result.

Remove batteries

Lithium and lead-acid batteries must come out before shipping. If a unit cannot be separated easily, tell us in advance and we will handle it here.

Palletize for freight

Boards and small components need boxing so nothing is lost in transit. Whole units can go loose on a pallet. Call before a first shipment and we will walk you through it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Quick answers on what we buy, how grading works and who we buy from.

What electronic waste does TDA Midwest buy?
TDA Midwest buys circuit boards and PCBs, servers and telecom equipment, computers and laptops, drives, memory, processors, power supplies, wiring harnesses and electronic control modules. Whole units are accepted and deconstruction is handled in house. Material is bought from registered businesses rather than from households.
Electronic waste is priced by recoverable content and by category, not by gross weight. Boards are sorted into grades and each grade carries its own rate, because high-grade telecom board and low-grade consumer board differ enormously in precious metal content. Steel chassis and plastic housings are handled as scrap and priced as scrap.
Sorting is not required, but sorted material prices better because mixed loads have to be quoted cautiously until they are broken down. Separate by equipment type where you can and keep server and telecom gear apart from consumer equipment. If you do not know the grades, send it unsorted.
Circuit board grades sort boards by how much precious metal they carry. High grade covers telecom, server and backplane boards with heavy gold plating and populated connectors. Mid grade covers standard motherboards and card stock. Low grade covers power supply and consumer boards with minimal plating. Each grade is priced separately.

No. TDA Midwest Corp buys from registered businesses only, including recyclers, salvage operations, IT asset disposal companies and commercial suppliers. We are a buyer and processor, not a public drop-off recycling point. A first transaction requires business registration and the applicable state license.

Collection minimums vary by material type, volume and location. There is no minimum for material delivered to our Aurora facility, though deliveries are by appointment.Call us and we will confirm whether your volume qualifies for a scheduled pickup.

Get a Price

Send photos and approximate weights and we come back the same business day.

Not Sure How It Grades?

Send photos and approximate weights and we will tell you what you have. On a first load we will show you how your material graded out, category by category, so you know what to separate next time.