Nearly all circuit breakers

can be recycled and reused. If a circuit breaker fails, it can sent off to an approved recycling location where the breaker is repaired, cleaned, tested, and put back in use.

Circuit breakers are protection and safety devices. They ensure that the electric current is stopped when there is a problem in the electric circuit system like when there is a sudden current surge caused by short circuits or ground faults. Because of this sensitive function, it is highly essential that circuit breakers have to be in good working condition. If at any time it does not function as it should, the appliance attached to the electric circuit could possibly electrocute the person holding it or worse, it would cause a fire.

When circuit breakers were cheaper and money was not as tight as it is today, it was so easy to just throw away a breaker and buy a new one. But with everybody in a savings mode, it has become the norm to recycle circuit breakers or sell them to a recycler. It’s a chance to earn from something that would otherwise have ended in trash. More so, being environmentally conscious and concerned about the environmental impact of all these discarded circuit breakers, finding ways of conserving materials and recycling are the trend today.

The number of companies who buy old electric parts including circuit breakers have risen today. They thoroughly inspect, clean up and repair these parts, replacing some parts if necessary and reconditioning them to make them as good as new. They have the capacity and technical know-how to take them apart, check and test the inside components and repair them and put them back together for selling. These companies are quite adept at recycling these breakers that they often tag on a one-year warranty on these breakers.

By selling them, you not only get the money that you can probably use to buy a replacement breaker but you are also helping reduce the number of breakers that end up in landfills. These breakers do not decompose and will therefore stay in the landfill for hundreds of years. It would also mean that you help save energy and fuel used in manufacturing a new one. Not to say you are also giving the recyclers and resellers the opportunity to make a profit from the recycled breakers.

The standards for recycling electrical parts are being set by Professional Electric Apparatus Recyclers League. This group has set standards and specifications for recycled motor starters, relays, contactors and circuit breakers. With these standards, it will not be too risky to buy recycled, used circuit breakers especially with the dangers it will cause if the breaker fails to perform.

Recycling is very much possible in an industry that works with a lot of non-biodegradable and non-renewable materials. It is not so impossible for the electrical industry to the advocacy of the country to go green. Start at home by not selling your circuit breakers to the recycling companies. You need not go to their stores or offices, you can easily ship them and they will send you the assessment of what you sent them and the payment.