E-Waste

8.1 Introduction 8.2 Classification 8.3 Composition of e-waste (A) Material wise composition of four e waste categories (B) Hazardous Substances in e-Waste: (C) Valuable Substances in e-waste 8.4 Hazardous health effect of various substances 8.5 Processing techniques (A) State-of-the- art recycling techniques (B) Hazardous e-waste disposal technologies 8.6 e-waste in Indian Scenario 8.7 E Parisara 8.8 Cleaning e-waste in India
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e-waste
Electronic waste, e-waste, e-scrap is a loose category of surplus, obsolete, broken, or discarded electrical or electronic devices. It may be defined as all secondary computers, entertainment device electronics, mobile phones, and other items such as television sets and refrigerators, whether sold, donated, or discarded by their original owners. This definition includes used electronics which are destined for reuse, resale, salvage, recycling, or disposal.
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e- waste
Electronic equipments / products connects with power plug, batteries which have become obsolete due to: 1. Latest advancement in existing technologies. Like mobiles phones replaced pagers with in a year or two. 2. Changes in fashion, style and status. For example advanced versions of cell phones are regularly & rapidly replacing existing handsets. 3. Nearing the end of their useful life.

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Dr P B Dwivedi, NMIMS University, India

Classification
E-waste encompasses ever growing range of obsolete electronic devices such as Computer related: computers, servers, main frames, monitors, TVs & display devices, Telecommunication devices: such as cellular phones & pagers etc. Electronic components: such as chips, processors, mother boards, printed circuit boards,

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Dr P B Dwivedi, NMIMS University, India

Classification
Industrial electronics: such as sensors, alarms, sirens, security devices, automobile electronic devices, printers, scanners, copiers and fax machines, printing cartridges besides calculators, audio and video devices Home appliances: such as refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines, and microwave ovens. Recording devices: such as DVDs, CDs, floppies, tapes,

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Dr P B Dwivedi, NMIMS University, India

Material

Large household appliances

Small household appliances 29 9.3 17 0.57 0.0068 << 1 << 1 << 1 << 1 0 0.75 37 0 0.16 6.9

Information & Communication Technologies and consumer electronics 36 5 4 0.29 0.018 << 1 << 1 << 1 << 1 0.0005 18 12 19 0.3 5.7 100

Lamps

Ferrous metal Aluminum Copper Lead Cadmium Mercury Gold Silver Palladium Indium Brominated plastics Plastics Lead glass Glass Other Total 1/16/2012

43 14 12 1.6 0.0014 << 1 << 1 << 1 << 1 0 0.29 19 0 0.017 10 100

14 0.22 0.02 0.0005 3.7 0 0 77 5 100 6

100 Dr P B Dwivedi, NMIMS University, India

Hazardous Substances

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Dr P B Dwivedi, NMIMS University, India

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Dr P B Dwivedi, NMIMS University, India

Health effect of hazardous substances

1. Arsenic: Chronic exposure can lead to various diseases of the skin, lung cancer and can often be fatal. 2. Barium: It forms poisonous oxides when in contact with air. Short-term exposure could lead to brain swelling, muscle weakness, damage to the heart 3. Beryllium: Classified as a human carcinogen because exposure to it can cause lung cancer. Workers, who are constantly exposed to beryllium, can develop Chronic Beryllium Disease (beryllicosis) which primarily affects the lungs.
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 4. Brominated flame retardants (BFRs): Combustion of halogenated case material and printed wiring boards at lower temperatures releases toxic emissions including dioxins which can lead to severe hormonal disorders. 5. Cadmium: Acute exposure causes flu-like symptoms of weakness, fever, headache, chills, sweating and muscular pain. The primary health risks of long term exposure are lung cancer and kidney damage. Cadmium also is believed to cause pulmonary emphysema and bone disease (osteomalacia and osteoporosis).
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6. CFCs (Chlorofluorocarbons): This results in increased incidence of skin cancer in humans and in genetic damage in many organisms. 7. Chromium: Chromium (VI) is easily absorbed in the human body and can produce various toxic effects within cells. Most chromium (VI) compounds are irritating to eyes, skin and mucous membranes. Chronic exposure to chromium (VI) compounds can cause permanent eye injury, unless properly treated. Chromium VI may also cause DNA damage.
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 8. Dioxins: Dioxins are known to be highly toxic to animals and humans because they bio-accumulate in the body and can lead to malformations of the foetus, decreased reproduction and growth rates and cause impairment of the immune system among other things. 9. Lead: Short-term exposure to high levels of lead can cause vomiting, diarrhea, convulsions, coma or even death. Other symptoms are appetite loss, abdominal pain, constipation, fatigue, sleeplessness, irritability and headache. Continued excessive exposure, as in an industrial setting, can affect the kidneys.
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 10. Mercury: It is a toxic heavy metal that bioaccumulates causing brain and liver damage if ingested or inhaled. 11. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs): PCBs causes a number of serious non-cancer health effects in animals, including effects on the immune system, reproductive system, nervous system, endocrine system and other health effects. Due to the high lipid solubility and slow metabolism rate of these chemicals, PCBs accumulate in the fat-rich tissues of almost all organisms (bioaccumulation).
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 12. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC): PVC when burned produces large quantities of hydrogen chloride gas (HCl), which combines with water to form hydrochloric acid and is dangerous because when inhaled, leads to respiratory problems. 13. Selenium: Exposure to high concentrations of selenium compounds cause selenosis. The major signs of selenosis are hair loss, nail brittleness, and neurological abnormalities (such as numbness and other odd sensations in the extremities).

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Processing techniques
(A) State-of-the- art Recycling techniques: 1. Detoxication: In developed countries, electronic waste processing usually first involves dismantling the equipment into various parts (metal frames, power supplies, circuit boards, plastics), often by hand. The advantages of this process are the human's ability to recognize and save working and repairable parts, including chips, transistors, RAM, etc. The disadvantage is that the labor is often cheapest in countries with the lowest health and safety standards.
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 In this process critical components are removed from the e-waste in order to avoid dilution and / or contamination of these materials with toxic substances during the downstream processes.

Critical components include, e.g., Lead glass from CRT screens, CFC gases from refrigerators, light bulbs and batteries.
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2. Shredding: Mechanical processing is the next step in e-waste treatment. It is normally an industrial large scale operation with sophisticated mechanical separator, with screening and granulating machines to separate constituent metal and plastic fractions, which are sold to smelters or plastics recyclers. It is done to obtain concentrates of recyclable materials and also to further separate hazardous materials. Typical components of a mechanical processing plant are Crushing units Shredders 1/16/2012 Dr P B Dwivedi, NMIMS
University, India

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 Magnets, eddy currents, and trommel screens are employed to separate glass, plastic, and ferrous and nonferrous metals, which can then be further separated at a smelter. Hazardous smoke and gases are captured, contained, and treated to mitigate environmental threat.
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 3. Refining: Third step of e-waste recycling is refining. Refining of resources in e-waste is possible with technologies to get back raw material with minimal environmental impact. Most of the fractions are refined or conditioned in order to be sold as secondary raw materials or to be disposed of in a final disposal site. For example Leaded glass from CRTs is reused in car batteries, ammunition, and lead wheel weights, or sold to foundries as a fluxing agent in processing raw lead ore. Copper, gold, palladium, silver, and tin are valuable metals sold to smelters for recycling.
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 An ideal electronic waste recycling plant combines dismantling for component recovery with increased costeffective processing of bulk electronic waste. A growing trend in electronic waste management is reuse. Reuse is preferable to recycling because it extends the lifespan of a device. Devices still need eventual recycling, but by allowing others to purchase used electronics, recycling can be postponed and value gained from device use.

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Hazardous e-waste disposal technologies

Incineration, open fire burning and land fills are few oftenly used processing techniques at large as well as small scale. But these techniques pose problem of environmental pollution in surrounding area. It simultaneously affects humans, animals and natural vegetation cover. Here we are discussing health and environmental problems of these techniques.
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Incineration
Incineration is the process of destroying waste through burning. Incineration is associated with a major risk of generating and dispersing contaminants and toxic substances in environment because of the variety of substances found in e-waste. This is especially true for incineration without prior treatment eg flue gas purification.

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 Cu, present in PCBs and cables, acts as catalyst for the generation of extremely toxic polybrominated dioxins (PBDDs) and furans (PBDFs) when brominated flameretardants are incinerated at low temperature (600800C). PVC, found in significant amounts in e-waste, is highly corrosive when burnt and also induces the formation of dioxins. Incineration also leads to the loss valuable of trace elements which could have been recovered if they had been sorted and processed separately.
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Open Burning
Open fires burn at relatively low temperatures release many more pollutants than in a controlled incineration. Inhalation of open fire emissions can trigger asthma attacks, respiratory infections, and cause other problems such as coughing, wheezing, chest pain, and eye irritation. Chronic exposure may lead to diseases such as emphysema and cancer.

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 Burning PVC releases hydrogen chloride (HCl) which on inhalation mixes with water in the lungs to form hydrochloric acid. This acid can lead to corrosion of the lung tissues, and several respiratory complications. Often open fires burn with a lack of oxygen, forming carbon monoxide, which poisons the blood when inhaled and extended exposure can be fatal. The residual particulate matter in the form of ash is prone to fly around in the vicinity and can also be dangerous when inhaled.

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Land filling
One of the most widely used methods of waste disposal. The leachate often contains heavy metals and other toxic substances which can contaminate ground and water resources. Mercury leaches, when circuit breakers are destroyed. Lead leach from broken lead-containing glass, such as the cone glass of cathode ray tubes from TVs and monitors.

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 Landfilled condersers emit hazardous PCB's. Even state-of-the-art landfills which are sealed to prevent toxins from entering the ground are not completely tight in the long-term and almost all landfills leak. Older landfill sites and uncontrolled dumps pose a much greater danger of releasing hazardous emissions. Besides leaching, vaporization is also of concern in landfills. For example, volatile compounds such as mercury or a frequent modification of it, dimethylene mercury can be released to atmosphere due to vaporization.
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 Landfills are also prone to uncontrolled fires which can release toxic fumes. Significant impacts can be avoided by conditioning hazardous materials from e-waste separately and by landfilling only those fractions for which there are no further recycling possibilities and ensure that they are in state-of-theart landfills that respect environmentally sound technical standards.

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Dr P B Dwivedi, NMIMS University, India

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