What Is E-Waste

What is E-Waste?
Electronic waste or e-waste is any broken or unwanted electrical or electronic appliance.

E-waste is Electronic Waste described as discarded waste including, but not limited to,
computers and their components, scanners, televisions, mobile devices, and gaming
devices.
E-Waste Facts
 Reported by the EPA to be the fastest growing municipal waste stream in the US
 19 states have passed producer responsibility legislation regarding E-Waste
(Source: Electronics TakeBack Coalition)
 Life cycle of a television was 7 years, now it is 2 years (Source: Electronics TakeBack
Coalition)
 85% of discarded electronics ends up in the trash (Source: Electronics TakeBack
Coalition)
 We want larger TV’s and smaller computers
Problems
 E-waste is the most rapidly growing waste problem in the world.
 It is a crisis of not quantity alone but also a crisis born from toxics ingredients,
posing a threat to the occupational health as well as the environment.
 Rapid technology change, low initial cost, high obsolescence rate have resulted
in a fast growing problem around the globe.
 Legal framework, proper collection system missing.
 Imports regularly coming to the recycling markets.
 Inhuman working conditions for recycling.
E-Waste: Growth
IT and telecom are two fastest growing industries in the country.
 India, by 2008, should achieve a PC penetration of 65 per 1,000 from the existing
14 per 1,000 (MAIT)
 At present, India has 15 million computers. The target being 75 million computers
by 2010.#
 Over 2 million old PCs ready for disposal in India.
 Life of a computer reduced from 7 years to 3-5 years.
E-Waste: Growth
 Over 75 million current mobile users, expected to increase to 200 million by 2007
end.*
 Memory devices, MP3 players, iPods etc. are the newer additions.
 Preliminary estimates suggest that total WEEE generation in India is approximately
1,46,000 tonnes per year. #
E-Waste: Growth
Three categories of WEEE account for almost 90% of the generation:
Large Household appliances: 42.1%
Information and communications: 33.9%
technology equipment
Consumer Electronics: 13.7%
E-Waste: Main Sources
 Imports;
 Govt., public and private sector discards (over 70%);
 PC retailers, manufacturers;
 Secondary market of old PCs; and
Individual Households.
E-Waste Hazards
Average PC of approx. 31.5 kg wt. contains:
7.24 kg - Plastics
1.98 kg - Lead
0.693g- -Mercury
0.4095g - Arsenic
2.961g - Cadmium
Two million Obsolete PCs w
1.98g - Chromium mean:
9.92g - Barium 14,427,000 kg
3,962,700 kg
4.94g - Beryllium
1,386 kg
819 kg
5,922 kg
3,969 kg
19,845 kg
9,891 kg
Existing Legislation
 Trans boundary movement of E waste covered under the Basel convention.
 India ratified the convention in 1992.
 Waste listed in list A and list B which prohibits such movements.
 Waste importers exploit such gaps as listed in the convention.
 Allowed to import against a license.
Mobile phones; facts
 Production today- 23 phones/sec
 Sales 2003- 515 million
 Subscribers-1.9 billion in 2005
 Subscribers- 2.6 billion in 2009
 Lifespan- 0.5- 1.5 (with 1st user)
 (estimates from the Basel convention based study 2006)
What do we do with all this waste we are producing?

Burying: which takes space, special construction of lined landfills, off gassing, leaching
remediation, and monitoring 30 year after the landfill is closed
Burning: Incinerators or Waste to Energy Plants reduce the volume of garbage by ~60%
but they require special air quality equipment, fly ash must be treated as an hazardous
material, and residue ash still has to go to the landfill. This method is more costly than
landfills, but suitable for large populations with land storages.
Mining: Mining recyclable material out of our waste stream reduces the volume of garbage
going to the land fill, but cost flexes with the market prices.
How can we reduce our waste production?

Tools to reduce waste:
The Four Steps:
 Rethink
 Reduce
 Reuse
 Recycle
RETHINK
We know that most items we purchase will be thrown away eventually, so why not design
for the “end of life” of the product? Engineers and product designers need to address:
 Packaging: materials comprise 65% of our waste.
 Toxic substances: substitute with less toxic or benign materials (i.e. lead-
free solder) that can be harmlessly disposed of or recycled.
Rethink Example: Building a Greener Computer

1. Engineer recycling into the design of the computer. Create components
which are easily interchangeable for updating or removed for recycling.
2. Solder with lead-free material.
3. Select wire insulation that is free of PBC.
4. Use non-toxic silicon-based flame retardant instead of non-recyclable and
toxic brominated fire retardants.
5. Replace chromium corrosion inhibitors with non-toxic forms.
REDUCE
As consumers, we make choices about the products we purchase and how much use we get
out of them.
 Bottled water vs personal water bottles
 Single use shopping bags vs. reusable bags
 Coffee and soda “go-cups” vs. reusable insulated cups
 Food packaged in individual servings vs. buying in bulk (i.e. oatmeal, pasta)
 News papers vs. On-line news
 Paper bills and newsletters vs. email or on-line
REUSE
We can choose when to replace our belongings.
 Repair vs. replace: is it broken, or just “old”?
 Using “hand me downs” and shopping at thrift stores instead of always
buying new clothing
 Taking advantage of libraries and rentals instead of buying most books and
movies.
 Taking proper care of the items we do purchase, to maximize their lifetime.
 Adapting items for another use instead of discarding (e.g. dryer lint + wax =
fire starters)
RECYCLE
 This term is often misused, or used too broadly. Proper definition of recycling
is "the separation and collection of materials for processing and
manufacturing into new products, and use of these new products to complete
the cycle".
 Should be the final step, after rethinking product design and reducing
waste production through wise purchasing and reuse.
 We are “closing the cycle” when we purchase items made up recycled
material.
 “Downcycling”occurs when the new product is of mixed materials and can
not be recycle again (i.e. carpeting and boards made of a mixture plastic
bottles and sawdust).
Boom and Bust of Recycling

The success of a recycling program is tied to market forces, transportation cost, and
proximity to manufacturers.
Should you pay for recycling?
The more complex an item the more labor is needed to separate materials. If the labor is
more costly than the recovered material than recycling is expensive. However one should
also include the environmental cost of mining raw material versus recycling raw metal.
Green Computing: The Environmental Impact of Desktop Computing
What is Green Computing?
 The positive (or least negative) relationship between the physical computer and its
impact to the environments in which it moves through from cradle to grave
Green Computing – Why?

 Growing public environmental awareness
 Increasing impacts on environmental and human health
 Corporate social responsibility
Cradle to Grave Approach

 Full life-cycle analysis, not just the product on our desks
 Looks at:
 Manufacturing
 Use during lifetime
 Disposal and reallocation
Manufacturing – Fossil Fuels

 Average desktop computer with monitor requires 10 times its weight in chemicals
and fossil fuels to produce
 240 kg of fossil fuel for CRT monitor (United Nations University)
 266 kg of fossil fuel for LCD monitor (Williams, 2003)

Manufacturing – Monitors
 CRT – lead and zinc leachate mean monitors are hazardous waste
(Lee et al., 2004)
 Lead: bioavailable in soil - can attack proteins and DNA, as well as interfere with
nervous system function (Bechara, 2004; Needleman, 2004)
 LCD – 4-12 mg mercury /unit (Williams, 2003)
 Liquid crystals – polycyclic or halogenated aromatic hydrocarbons, 588 different
compounds
 4% have potential for acute toxicity, but show no mutagenic effects in bacteria tests
(Williams, 2003)
Manufacturing – Other Toxins
 PBDE – similar structures to PCB and DDT

 Bioavailable, environmentally persistent, biomagnifies in blood, fatty and liver
tissue (Domingo, 2004)
 Extraction impacts – refining of petroleum for energy and plastic, mining and
smelting of metals
 Solvents in microchip fabrication – hydrochloric acid, hydrofluoric acid, arsenic,
benzene and hexavalent chromium (Williams, 2003)
Use – Environmental Impacts

 Electricity consumption for desktops and peripherals
 120W CRT+CPU; more for older machines
Waste – Good News

 Recycling
 Metal recovery
 Semi-precious metal recovery
 Stewardship pledge (Basel Action Network)
Breaking Down Electricity

 50% mechanical
 35% lighting
 15% plug-load
 Where can we find efficiencies?

What Is E-Waste

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What Is E-Waste

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What is E-Waste?

Electronic waste or e-waste is any broken or unwanted electrical or electronic appliance.

What do we do with all this waste we are producing?

How can we reduce our waste production?

Rethink Example: Building a Greener Computer

Boom and Bust of Recycling

Green Computing – Why?

Cradle to Grave Approach

Manufacturing – Fossil Fuels

 240 kg of fossil fuel for CRT monitor (United Nations University)

 266 kg of fossil fuel for LCD monitor (Williams, 2003)

Manufacturing – Other Toxins

 PBDE – similar structures to PCB and DDT

Use – Environmental Impacts

 120W CRT+CPU; more for older machines

Waste – Good News

Breaking Down Electricity

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