4. Contents:
1. What is e-waste?
2. Electronic waste’s substances.
3. Issues and problems.
4. Hazardous substances.
5. Health conditions.
6. Recycling and uses.
7. Recycling techniques.
8. What you can do?
9. Uses by recycling old goods.
5. What is e-waste ?
E-Waste is a shortening of electronic waste.
Electronic waste, e-waste, e-scrap, or as Waste Electrical and
Electronic Equipment (WEEE) describes discarded electrical or
electronic devices,(which are of no use other then hitting
your enemy)
Any improperly disposed electronics can be classified as e-waste.
6. Issues and problems:
Rapid changes in technology, changes in
media, falling prices, and developing new
electronics and discarding old ones, is a
huge issue arising.
Technical solutions are available, but in
most cases a legal
framework, logistics, and other services
need to be implemented before a technical
solution can be applied.
7. Electronic waste substances:
Substances found in large quantities include epoxy
resins, fibreglass, PCBs, polyvinyl chlorides ,thermosetting
plastics, lead, tin, copper ,silicon
,beryllium, carbon, iron and aluminium.
Elements found in small amounts
include cadmium, mercury, and thallium.
Elements found in trace amounts
include americium, antimony, arsenic, barium, bismuth, boron, coba
lt, europium, gallium, germanium
,gold, indium, lithium, manganese, nickel, niobium, palladium, plati
num, rhodium, ruthenium, selenium, silver, tantalum, terbium, thor
ium, titanium, vanadium, and yttrium
8. Hazardous substances:
Americium: the radioactive source in smoke alarms. It is known to
be carcinogenic.
Mercury: found in fluorescent tubes (numerous applications), tilt switches
(mechanical doorbells, thermostats),and flat screen monitors. Health
effects include sensory impairment, dermatitis, memory loss, and muscle
weakness. Environmental effects in animals include death, reduced
fertility, slower growth and development.
Sulphur: found in lead-acid batteries. Health effects include liver
damage, kidney damage, heart damage, eye and throat irritation. When
released in to the environment, it can create sulphuric acid.
9. And still
Cadmium: The most common form of cadmium is found in Nickel-
cadmium rechargeable batteries. The inhalation of cadmium can cause
severe damage to the lungs and is also known to cause kidney damage.
Lead and beryllium oxide: these are used as solder and thermal grease
respectively and are both harmful and cause severe lung infections.
10. Health conditions:
Many of the primitive recycling operations in Guiyu are
toxic and dangerous to workers' health. 88% of workers
suffer from neurological, respiratory or digestive
abnormalities or skin diseases. Higher than average
rates of miscarriage are also reported in the region.
Workers also "cook" circuit boards to remove chips
and solders, burn wires and other plastics to liberate
metals such as copper; use highly corrosive and
dangerous acid baths along the riverbanks to
extract gold from the microchips; and sweep
printer toner out of cartridges
11. Toxic Substances Present in E-waste
There are many harmful materials used
in consumer electronics including
lead, cadmium, mercury and plastics.
12. Recycling techniques:
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, but increasingly by
automated shredding equipment.
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 labour is cheapest in countries with the lowest
health and safety standards.
13. Nations that have signed and ratified, along with nations that have signed
but have not ratified the agreement.
16. Electronic waste in china:
Guiyu, China, in Guangdong. Province is made up of four small villages. It
is the location of the largest electronic waste (e-waste) site on
earth, China is believed to be the predominant recipient of the world's
electronic waste, with a roughly estimated one million tons being shipped
there per year, mostly from the United States, Canada, Japan, and South
Korea. The waste arrives via container ships through the ports of Hong
Kong or Pearl River Delta at Nanhai.
22. What can you do?
In order to lessen the amount of e-waste being produced, individuals
can do many things:
1. Keep your old electronics longer instead of replacing them.
2. If discarding old electronics, be sure to recycle them at a
trusted recycling center.
3. Purchase efficient electronics that do not contain hazardous
materials such as mercury and lead.
23. Uses by recycling of e-waste materials
LED’S from old LED panels.
Computer chips using old used gold metal.
Creating new solar cells using old silicon wafers.
Recycling silicon chip for making lithium ion batteries.
Rolling up of nanowire batteries using from old silicon chips
24. The Issue
Due to the breakneck speed of the modern world at developing new
electronics and discarding old ones, a huge problem is brewing.
The recycling procedures used in disposal centers in rural china lead to toxic
materials like lead to seep into the surrounding environment.
This practice occurs all over places like India, Pakistan, Singapore, and
specifically, China.
The example being studied is the small village of Guiyu, China, which has
become a centerpiece in this issue.