Electronic waste or e-waste is a term used to describe all types of electronic devices and equipment, for example, televisions, radios, refrigerators, microwaves, electronic watches, computers, printers, scanners, cameras, laptops, light bulbs, cell phones and its accompanying peripherals become unusable for one reason or another and end up being dumped into the environment.
Why recycle e-waste?
It is becoming a common trend to recycle e-waste instead of simply disposing of it because this ensures that resources in the environment are reasonably and cost-effectively conserved in the first place. This is because some of the parts and components of e-waste are often reusable, for example, plastic parts, metal in microcircuit boards, glass in cathode ray tubes, etc.
Second, electronic waste is one of the main causes of environmental pollution. Apart from visual pollution, some of the parts and components of electronics, for example cathode ray tubes, contain harmful substances such as lead which, if left in the environment at random, can reach human consumption and cause harmful health effects. Therefore, recycling prevents this from happening and takes a step towards creating a cleaner environment that is less prone to the risk of exposure to substances harmful to humans.
The e-waste recycling process
E-waste is generally recycled in a two-step process; classification and treatment.
Sorting is the complete separation of the mass of e-waste into different categories of materials, for example: plastics, metals, glass, wood, rubber, etc. Another form of classification is according to particular components that undergo a particular treatment, for example: hard drives, cathode ray tubes, motherboards, cell phone circuits, camera lenses, batteries, flash drives, CDs, DVDs, etc. cables, switches, processors and so on.
Treatment is the actual treatment of classified groups or categories of electronic waste, normally by different treatment entities for each category of material or component.
E-waste processing methods
Plastics are melted down and transformed into other useful items.
Glass from cathode ray tubes is generally reused in the manufacture of new cathode ray tube monitors. (Cathode ray tubes contain large amounts of lead, which is highly toxic.)
Mercury, a common toxicant, is often extracted and reused in dental practice, while phosphorus from the bulbs is used to make fertilizer.
Wood from older generation electronics (speakers, radios, and televisions) is typically ground up and used in agriculture or to make combustible material.
Components such as hard drives, which are made of aluminum, are cast and the resulting metal ingots are used to make vehicle parts.
There are also certain machine parts that are expressly sent to the manufacturer for recycling, for example, printer toner cartridges. Here we see that recycling does not necessarily mean actively treating e-waste, but can also mean categorizing and sending the components back to the manufacturer (for those manufacturers who do recycle).
Some metals, such as barium, are extracted through electrolysis and reused. Likewise, the nickel and cadmium extracted are reused in the manufacture of fortified steel and dry cells.