3R options in E - waste management

What is E - Waste ?

E - waste is a popular name for electronic products nearing the end of their useful life.

Sources of E - waste
E - Waste

Lighting equipment

House hold appliances

Tele communication equipment

Electronic Tools

consumer electronics

Composition of E - waste

source :http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2796756/

Sector wise E - waste generation

These three categories comprises 90% of E - waste

source :http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2796756/

Toxic chemicals in E - waste

Mercury

Cadmium

Lithium

Nearly 1000 varieties of toxic substances found in E - waste.

E - waste world wide

In USA, it accounts for 1% to 3% of total municipal waste generation In EU, E - waste generation is growing three times faster than municipal waste generation. In developing countries it account for 1% and it is expected to grow in the near future

source : http://envis.maharashtra.gov.in/envis_data/files/Ewastgeneration_scenario.html

E - waste (Indian scenario)

source : Manufacturers association for information technology (MAIT)

Reason

Many of the Scrap pickers dont know the health hazards associated with Electronic waste.

Practices to recycle E - waste by informal sector

Non Recycled waste goes to Dumps Heavy metals may leach and contaminate Ground water When burnt , the metals vaporize in to air releasing lead and acids.

 The appropriate handling of electronic waste (e-waste) can both prevent serious environmental damage, but also recover valuable materials, especially different types of metals such as aluminium, copper, palladium and gold.

Example

A mobile phone can contain over 40 elements from the periodic table including base metals like copper (Cu) and tin (Sn), special metals such as cobalt (Co), indium (In) and antimony (Sb), and precious metals including silver (Ag), gold (Au) and palladium (Pd). Metals represent on average 23% of the weight of a phone, the majority being copper, while the remainder is plastic and ceramic material

Carbon dioxide emissions during mining of these metals

Carbon dioxide from Recycling

Recovering metals from state-of-the art recycling processes generates only a fraction of these CO2 emissions and also has significant benefits compared to mining in terms of land use and hazardous emissions Production of 1 kg aluminium by recycling uses only 1/10 or less of the energy required for primary production, and prevents the creation of 1.3 kg of bauxite residue, 2 kg of CO2 emissions and 0.011 kg of SO2 emissions as well as the impacts and emissions associated with the production of the alloying elements used in aluminium

 On a more local level, uncontrolled discarding or inappropriate waste management/recycling generates significant hazardous emissions, with severe impacts on health and environment Primary emissions: Hazardous substances that are contained in ewaste (e.g. lead5, mercury, arsenic, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), fluorinated cooling fluids etc.) Secondary emissions: Hazardous reaction products of e-waste substances as a result of improper treatment (e.g. dioxins or furans formed by incineration/inappropriate smelting of plastics with halogenated flame retardants) Tertiary emissions: Hazardous substances or reagents that are used during recycling (e.g. cyanide or other leaching agents, mercury for gold amalgamation) and that are released because of inappropriate handling and treatment.

3 R Options

Recycling chain

The efficiency of the entire recycling chain depends on the efficiency of each step and on how well the interfaces between these interdependent steps are managed