Electronic waste
The rapid exponential increase of e-waste is due to frequent new model releases and unnecessary purchases of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE), short innovation cycles and low recycling rates, and a drop in the average life span of computers.
Display units (CRT, LCD, LED monitors), processors (CPU, GPU, or APU chips), memory (DRAM or SRAM), and audio components have different useful lives.
Out of the 53.6 Metric tons generated e-waste globally, the formally documented collection and recycling was 9.3%, and the fate of 44.3% remains uncertain, with its whereabouts and impact to the environment varying across different regions of the world.
Solving the E-waste Problem is a membership organization that is part of United Nations University and was created to develop solutions to address issues associated with electronic waste.
Some of the most eminent players in the fields of Production, Reuse and Recycling of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE), government agencies and NGOs as well as UN Organisations count themselves among its members.
The evaluation process has definitely gave good results in the areas like controlling the environmental damage, increasing the awareness of recycling, reusable batteries and also improving the efficiency of the internal markets.
Regulations like this may reduce electronic waste by small but significant amounts as well as, in this case, increase device-interoperability, convergence and convenience for consumers while decreasing resource-needs and redundancy.
One theory is that increased regulation of electronic wastes and concern over the environmental harm in nature economies creates an economic disincentive to remove residues prior to export.
South Korea, Taiwan, and southern China all excelled in finding "retained value" in used goods, and in some cases have set up billion-dollar industries in refurbishing used ink cartridges, single-use cameras, and working CRTs.
[65] The research that was undertaken by the Countering WEEE Illegal Trade (CWIT) project, funded by the European Commission, found that in Europe only 35% (3.3 million tons) of all the e-waste discarded in 2012 ended up in the officially reported amounts of collection and recycling systems.
For example, locals and migrant workers in Delhi, a northern union territory of India, scavenge discarded computer equipment and extract base metals using toxic, unsafe methods.
[83] Scrap workers at the Agbogbloshie e-waste dump regularly burn electronic components and auto harness wires for copper recovery,[84] releasing toxic chemicals like lead, dioxins and furans[85] into the environment.
Researchers such as Brett Robinson, a professor of soil and physical sciences at Lincoln University in New Zealand, warn that wind patterns in Southeast China disperse toxic particles released by open-air burning across the Pearl River Delta Region, home to 45 million people.
The cassava fields were transformed in late 2017, when a nearby Chinese-run factory started bringing in foreign e-waste items such as crushed computers, circuit boards and cables for recycling to mine the electronics for valuable metal components like copper, silver and gold.
Water tests conducted in the province by environmental group Earth and the local government both found toxic levels of iron, manganese, lead, nickel and in some cases arsenic and cadmium.
[89] In May 2020, a scientific study was conducted in China that investigated the occurrence and distribution of traditional and novel classes of contaminants, including chlorinated, brominated, and mixed halogenated dibenzo-p-dioxins/dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs, PBDD/Fs, PXDD/Fs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polyhalogenated carbazoles (PHCZs) in soil from an e-waste disposal site in Hangzhou (which has been in operation since 2009 and has a treatment capacity of 19.6 Wt/a).
While the study area has only one formal emission source, the broader industrial zone has a number of metal recovery and reprocessing plants as well as heavy traffic on adjacent motorways where normal and heavy-duty devices are used.
One way e-waste is processed is by melting circuit boards, burning cable sheathing to recover copper wire and open- pit acid leaching for separating metals of value.
The ETBC aims to place responsibility for disposal of technology products on electronic manufacturers and brand owners, primarily through community promotions and legal enforcement initiatives.
Hewlett-Packard product recycling solutions manager Renee St. Denis describes its process as: "We move them through giant shredders about 30 feet tall and it shreds everything into pieces about the size of a quarter.
In early November 2021, the U.S. state of Georgia announced a joint effort with Igneo Technologies to build an $85 million large electronics recycling plant in the Port of Savannah.
"[116] Due to the recent surge in popularity in 3D printing, certain 3D printers have been designed (FDM variety) to produce waste that can be easily recycled which decreases the amount of harmful pollutants in the atmosphere.
[122] On the other, manufacturers in some sectors encourage a regular upgrade cycle, and may even enforce it though restricted availability of spare parts, service manuals and software updates, or through planned obsolescence.
Substances found in large quantities include epoxy resins, fiberglass, PCBs, PVC (polyvinyl chlorides), thermosetting plastics, lead, tin, copper, silicon, beryllium, carbon, iron, and aluminum.
[127] Elements found in trace amounts include americium, antimony, arsenic, barium, bismuth, boron, cobalt, europium, gallium, germanium, gold, indium, lithium, manganese, nickel, niobium, palladium, platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, selenium,[128] silver, tantalum, terbium, thorium, titanium, vanadium, and yttrium.
A growing body of epidemiological and clinical evidence has led to increased concern about the potential threat of e-waste to human health, especially in developing countries such as India and China.
Long-term exposure to lead on printed circuit boards and computer and television screens can damage the central and peripheral nervous system and kidneys, and children are more susceptible to these harmful effects.
[158] OSHA has also specified some chemical components of electronics that can potentially do harm to e-recycling workers' health, such as lead, mercury, PCBs, asbestos, refractory ceramic fibers (RCFs), and radioactive substances.
[144] The primitive methods used by unregulated backyard operators (e.g., the informal sector) to reclaim, reprocess, and recycle e-waste materials expose the workers to a number of toxic substances.
Studies in the formal e-recycling facilities in France and Sweden found workers' overexposure (compared to recommended occupational guidelines) to lead, cadmium, mercury and some other metals, as well as BFRs, PCBs, dioxin and furans.
