The Myth About Recycled USB Flash Memory

One of the most common questions that come up when buying USB Flash Drives to the supplier is – Do you use recycled memory? But what actually is Recycled Memory? Recycled Memory is a term that has come into existence in the last year or two, but not many people actually know what it means, they think they do, but most of the time they will find themselves mistaken.

Most people associate something that is recycled as something that has been used once and is then converted into something that can be used again, but on this occasion this is not the case. If you think about it, the whole concept is unfeasible, there’s no USB recycle bin next to the recycled bottle and tin bins! People don’t recycle USB’s, the only real time people get rid of them is when they are either lost or thrown away because they are faulty. If USB’s are returned to a factory as being faulty, it’s not an item that can be easily repaired. The time and effort that would need to go in to repairing USB’s would far outweigh any benefit that can be gained from reselling them.

A more accurate term for “Recycled Memory” would be “Downgraded Memory”. When a company such as Samsung manufacture a flash chip, it must meet a certain standard to be classed as Tier 1 or Grade A, it is rated on criteria such as read/write speed and actual memory capacity. If the chip doesn’t meet these standards then it is possible to use software to downgrade the chip to the memory size below, for example: a 2GB memory chip with low capacity will be downgraded to a 1GB chip with full capacity.

The problem with downgrading the chips is that it hides floors in the USB, it may appear to be a working 1GB USB, but there is a much higher chance that there will be problems when transferring files and the chip is much more likely to fail. The problems usually occur when you try to transfer across large files and the transfer is interrupted half way through.

Recycled memory is also not to be confused with a recycled USB Flash Drive where the recycled refers to the casing, NOT the electrical components inside. This type of flash drive is very much welcomed as it is good for the environment, but doesn’t affect the performance of the USB.

When ordering USB Flash Drives from companies in the US or Europe, you are unlikely to encounter these sort of problems as these companies would soon get a bad reputation and a bad reputation is hard to hide in this age of the internet. Companies that go direct to the factory in China with no way to check the quality of the USB’s until they arrive to them are more susceptible to this sort of problem as they have almost no legal come back against the factories. The pricing may be a lot lower, but the quality of the USB Flash Drive you receive can be a lottery. It is a shame that these cowboy factories give the legitimate factories a bad name.