1. Electronic
waste
by: shubham gupta

2. Contents:
1. What is e-waste?
2. Issues and problems.
3. Electronic waste’s substances.
4. Hazardous substances.
5. Case study.
6. Recycling techniques.
7. What you can do?

3. What is e-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)

4. 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.

6. • Countries likes India Pakistan and China etc are
major e-waste recycling countries, but still
informal processing of electronic waste in
developing countries may cause serious health
and pollution problems, though these countries
are also most likely to reuse and repair
electronics. Some electronic scrap components,
such as CRTs, may contain contaminants such
as lead, cadmium, beryllium or brominated
flame retardants which are very harmful.

8. 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, bismu
th, boron, cobalt, europium, gallium, germanium
,gold, indium, lithium, manganese, nickel, niobium, p
alladium, platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, selenium, si
lver, tantalum,
terbium, thorium, titanium, vanadium, and yttrium

9. 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.

10. • 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: the are used as solder
and thermal grease respectively and are both
harmful and cause severe lung infections.

11. Material composition of personal computers
OTHER(includes lead, mercury, copper, zinc and cadmium) Aluminium Ferrous metal Silica/glass Plastics
17%
23%
14%
26%
20%

12. • The Basel Convention on the Control of Tran
boundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and
Their Disposal, usually known simply as the
Basel Convention, is an international treaty that
was designed to reduce the movements of
hazardous waste between nations, and
specifically to prevent transfer of hazardous
waste from developed to less developed
countries
• Of the 172 parties to the
Convention, Afghanistan, Haiti, and the United
States have signed the Convention but have not
yet ratified it

13. • Nations that have signed and ratified, along with
nations that have signed but have not ratified the
agreement.

14. 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.

15. • From there it is trucked to informal e-waste
processing centres such as Guiyu, which receives
more e-waste than any other area in China.
Guiyu began receiving e-waste around 1995, and
today, there are an estimated 150,000 e-waste
workers in Guiyu who process the more than 100
truckloads that are dumped into the 52 square
kilometre area every day.Guiyu is appropriately
nicknamed the "electronic graveyard“.

16. 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

17. • A recent study of the area evaluated the extent of
heavy metal contamination from the site. Using
dust samples, scientists analysed mean heavy
metal concentrations in a Guiyu workshop and
found that lead and copper were 371 and 115
times higher, respectively, than areas located 30
kilometres away. The same study revealed that
sediment from the nearby Lianjiang River was
found to be contaminated by polychlorinated
byphenyls at a level three times greater than the
guideline amount. Studies are under way to
assess the extent to which chemicals like these
magnify through bioaccumulation.

20. Once a rice village, the pollution has made Guiyu unable to produce crops for food
and the water of the river undrinkable.

22. Clean up efforts:
• Since 2007, conditions in Guiyu have changed little despite the
efforts of the central government to crack down and enforce the
long-standing e-waste import ban. Recent studies have revealed
some of the highest levels of dioxin ever recorded. However, because
of the work of activist groups and increasing awareness of the
situation, there is hope for the site to be improved. "It can be done.
Look at what happened with lead acid batteries. We discovered they
were hazardous, new legislation enforced new ways of dealing with
the batteries which led to an infrastructure being created. The key
was making it easy for people and companies to participate. It took
years to build. E-waste is going the same route. But attitudes have
changed and we will get there," Mr. Houghton says. Zheng
Songming, head of the Guiyu Township government has published a
decree to ban burning electronics in fires and soaking them in
sulphuric acid, and promises supervision and fines for violations.
Over 800 coal-burning furnaces have been destroyed because of this
ordinance, and most notably, air quality has returned to Level
II, now technically acceptable for habitation.

23. 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.

24. • An ideal electronic waste recycling plant
combines dismantling for component recovery
with increased cost-effective processing of bulk
electronic waste.
• Reuse is an alternative option 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. Recycling raw
materials from end-of-life electronics is the most
effective solution to the growing e-waste
problem.

25. What can you do?
• In order to lessen the bulk of e-waste being
produced, individuals can do many things;
1. Keep your old electronics longer with a little bit of
repairing instead of replacing them.
2. If discarding old electronics, be sure to recycle
them at trusted recycling center having continual
improvement elements for quality, environmental
and health and safety performance.
3. Purchase efficient electronics that do not contain
hazardous materials such as mercury and lead.

26. THE END.