GREEN ELECTRONICS

Prepared By -
TARANDEEP SINGH
 GREEN ELECTRONICS

BASIC AIM
Green Electronics focuses on elimination of
harmful chemicals, elements and
components, and recycling of electronic
products at the end of life.
 INTRODUCTION
Electronics has made life easier for us.
Certain materials in the electronic goods and products are toxic

and harmful to the nature and the humans especially.

Green Electronics focuses on the elimination of these harmful

and toxic chemicals and elements from the products, and

recycling the electronic items at the end of their life.
Among the harmful chemicals are Lead, Cadmium, Mercury,

Polybrominated Diphenyls Ethers(PBDE).

Many Parliaments of the the different Countries has passed the

legislation to restrict the use of Lead and other harmful matierials

for the manufacture of electronic products.
 SUBSTITUTE FOR LEAD???
90% of all Electronic goods and products are made up of LEAD.
Efforts are being made to find feasible and cost-effective ways for producing lead-
free products.
Many of these electronic components are highly toxic.
Toxic materials and emissions contaminate the air and water resources.
Semiconductors are the basis of all the electronic components and lead is the glue that
binds all the semiconductor devices to make them work efficiently
Lead alloy solders help to transfer data from your computer.
Earlier, lead was even used in paints, ceramic glazes and plumbing solders. But now
its been discarded due to its poisoning effects.
FACT: One Billion pounds of lead are contained in obsolete computers in the US
alone.
IMPORTANT CONCLUSION: This means we have to recycle computers as fast as
we make them and too efficiently.

So at the end of this session it can be inferred that tough Lead is an important element
for the electronic industry, but its replacement is quite difficult and a tedious task for
the researchers and engineers.
 Why LEAD is used in Electronic
Components???
Points as to why LEAD is used in Electronic Components and Device:
To Meet Performance Requirement in a cost-efficient manner.
Lead can be easily Remoulded and Refined.
Lead has Highest Recycling Rate of all the industrial metals in the world.
Natural Properties:
1. Low Melting Point
2. High Strength
3. Ductility
4. Fatigue Resistance
5. High Thermal Cycling
6. Joint Integrity
7. Corrosion Resistant
8. Malleability
9. Long Life
Lead is essential to the production of many highly technical products, from
foetal monitors to fibre optics. It plays a vital role in space exploration,
energy conservation and telecommunications.
 E-Toxic Components in Computers
The e-toxic components in computers include:
1. Computer circuit boards containing heavy metals like lead and
cadmium.
2. Computer batteries containing cadmium.
3. Cathode ray tubes with lead oxide and barium.
4. Brominated flame-retardants used on PCBs, cables and plastic casing.
5. Poly-vinyl chloride (PVC) coated copper cables and plastic computer
casings that release highly toxic dioxins and furans when burnt to
recover valuable metals.
6. Mercury switches.
7. Mercury in flat screens.
8. Polychlorinated biphenyls present in older capacitors and transformers.
 Disposal of E-Waste
E-waste can be disposed in three ways:

1. Incineration
2. Landfilling
3. Recycling
 INCINERATION
Incineration basically entails to destroying the e-waste
including computers and other electronic devices and
components by burning.
Incineration is particularly dangerous because of the variety of
different substances found together in electro scrap.
The burning of these components results into high
concentrations of metals, including heavy metals, in the slag,
fly ash, flue gas and filter cake.
90% of cadmium results into fly ash and 70% of mercury
results into filter cake.
Some of the electro scrap can also be sent to cement kilns for
use as an alternative to fuel.
 LANDFILLING
Landfilling involves disposing the e-waste by burning it, especially as a
method of filling in and reclaiming excavated pits.
Major Disadvantage: Even the best state-of-the-art landfills dont remain
completely tight throughout their lifetimes and a certain amount of chemical
and metal leaching does occur.
Mercury leaches when certain electronic devices, such as circuit breakers, are
destroyed. The same is true for PCBs from condensers.
When brominated flame-retarded plastic or cadmium-containing plastics are
landfilled, both PBDE and cadmium may leach into the soil and groundwater.
Even significant amount of lead ions are dissolved from broken lead
containing glass, such as the cone glass of cathode ray tubes, when mixed
with acid waters.
 RECYCLING
Of the three discussed, Recycling is by far the best method.
It simply removes the hazards into secondary products that eventually have to be
disposed of. Unless he goal is to redesign the product to use non-hazardous
materials, such recycling is a false solution.
Hazardous emissions to the air also result from the recycling of e-waste containing
heavy metals, such as lead and cadmium.
Another problem with heavy metals and halogenated substances in untreated waste
occurs during the shredding process. Since most waste is shredded without proper
disassembly, hazardous substances, such as PCBs contained in capacitors into the
recovered metals and the shredder waste.
 Consequences of using Lead-Free Solders
Lead is said to have cause serious chronic damage.
From health point of view, it is a risk using lead in tin solders for human
exposure.
The humans are most prone to lead via the Environment.