What is E-Waste Recycling and How is it Done?

A regular user of electronic products does not need to know that electronics won't last a lifetime. So, what happens after they break down? Sometimes, people leave them to waste away without reusing them.

Economic developments directly link to the increasing volumes of e-waste. In 2019, people globally generated almost 54 Mt of WEEE, and this number increases every year. When it comes to e-waste generated per capita, the European Union ranks first with 16.2 kg, whereas Asia produced the highest total quantity of e-waste at 24.9 Mt.

E-waste requires proper management and recycling due to its crucial nature. It harbors toxic substances that informal recycling processes release into the environment. This release results in a direct negative impact on people’s health, alongside pollution, and even contributes to global warming.

Consequently, an increasing number of countries are adopting e-waste policies. In 2019, e-waste regulations, policies, or laws were in place in 78 countries, covering 71 % of the world’s population. However, the average global collection rate is only 17 %, while Europe collects around 55 % of WEEE. The standards of different treatments greatly vary around the world, not just their number.

What is E-Waste Recycling

E-waste, or waste from electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), encompasses a broad spectrum of power or battery-operated products, ranging from computers and mobile phones to household appliances or medical devices.

These electronic devices often contain hazardous materials and toxic chemicals. If not disposed of correctly, these substances can be released into the environment, causing harm.

The process of e-waste recycling involves the recovery and reuse of materials from electronic waste for incorporation into new electronic products. This process is straightforward yet crucial.

E-waste can come from various sources, including household appliances like air conditioners, televisions, electric cookers, heaters, DVDs, fans, microwaves, and radios.

How is E-Waste Recycling Done?

Recycling e-waste is vastly more complex than recycling conventional waste. Manual sorting typically kicks off the recycling process. After collecting and transporting the e-waste to the recycling facilities, workers categorize the e-waste according to their types and models.

They then examine all electronic devices and extract any parts that are still functional for reusing; they can either sell these as individual parts or combine them to create a new phone or computer. They send any non-functional e-waste left behind to recycling processing.

So how should we correctly dispose of e-waste and what is the recycling process?

The process of e-waste recycling involves several steps:

• Collection: The first stage in the recycling process for e-waste is the collection of electronic products through recycling bins, collection locations, take-back programs, or on-demand collection services.

• Sorting and Dismantling: The collected e-waste is sorted and dismantled. This involves sorting, separating, cleaning, emptying, and segregating the waste.

• Size Reduction: Then, they subject the e-waste to a size reduction process, which involves shredding and grinding.

• Magnetic Separation: After reducing the size, we use magnetic separation to separate the metallic and non-metallic components.

• Extraction of Valuable Materials: The final step is the extraction of valuable materials from the e-waste. Shredding the e-waste into tiny pieces that could be reused in new electronic appliances does this.

What materials can we extract from e-waste?

E-waste recycling, often referred to as urban mining, is a process that recovers valuable and scarce materials from discarded electronic devices. This method is not only sustainable but also economical, as it can be 13 times cheaper than extracting metals from traditional mines.

The materials that can be extracted and reused include:

• Precious metals such as gold, silver, copper, platinum, rhodium, or ruthenium
• Critical raw materials such as cobalt, palladium, indium, or antimony
• Non-critical metals such as aluminum and iron
• Plastics
• Glass
• Other materials.

Here's an interesting fact: Between April 2017 and March 2019, people across Japan donated devices from which metals from six million mobile phones and nearly 72,000 tons of waste electronics were extracted. They used these materials to create around 5,000 gold, silver, and bronze medals for the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

However, recyclers and users cannot recycle and reuse all parts of electronic and electrical waste. For instance, lead heavily contaminates the glass screens of Cathode Ray Tubes (CRT) TVs and monitors. Currently, they store a large portion of this glass indefinitely.

Like the rest of the waste industry, e-waste recycling also utilizes technology. This includes smart waste solutions for the collection and transport of e-waste like Sensoneo’s take-back system, using robots for dismantling electronics instead of shredding them, or employing artificial intelligence in identifying e-waste.

Current Recycling challenges

Statista reported that in 2019, recycling only covered 17.4% of documented e-waste. The design of many modern electronic devices, which does not consider recycling as a priority, can explain this low percentage. As the design of smartphones evolve to become slimmer and lighter with non-removable batteries, the recycling process becomes more challenging and labor-intensive.

Workers involved in manual sorting are continually exposed to low levels of toxic substances over extended periods. Moreover, the rapid evolution of technology necessitates frequent upgrades to recycling facilities, further discouraging businesses from recycling hard-to-disassemble e-waste.

Currently, the recycling industry can only mechanically process 10 out of the 60 chemical elements found in e-waste: gold, silver, platinum, cobalt, tin, copper, iron, aluminum, and lead.

Recycling e-waste not only prevents harmful substances from entering our bodies and the environment but also mitigates the environmental damage caused by extracting and mining virgin materials. This industry has significant economic potential; in 2019 alone, the value of discarded e-waste exceeded US$57 billion. However, the industry must address several challenges to realize its full potential. These include designing more recyclable electronic products and conducting further research on mechanical processing for recycling the remaining chemical elements.

Keep Reading

• E-waste poses threat to 30 million children worldwide: WHO
• At least 18 million children work in ‘digital garbage dumps’
• North America is illegally feeding India’s Amazon packaging waste

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