What is the e-waste?

Electronic waste (e-waste) refers to the disposal of broken or obsolete electronic components
and materials. It is a various forms of electric and electronic equipment that have ceased to be
of value to their users or no longer satisfy their original purpose.

Electronic waste products have exhausted their utility value through redundancy, replacement
or breakage and include both “white goods” such as refrigerators, washing machines, and
microwaves and “brown goods” such as televisions, radios, computers, and cell phones.

Classification of e-waste

1. On the basis of composition

Ferrous and nonferrous metals, glass, plastics, pollutants, and other are the six categories of
materials reported for e-waste composition. Iron and steel constitute the major fraction in
waste electrical and electronic equipment materials, with plastics being the second largest.
Nonferrous materials, including metals such as copper and aluminum, and precious metals
such as silver, gold, and platinum are third in abundance and have significant commercial
value. Toxic materials include lead and cadmium in circuit boards, lead oxide and cadmium
in cathode ray tubes, mercury in switches and flat-screen monitors, brominated flame
retardants on printed circuit boards, and plastic and insulated cables; when these exceed the
threshold quantities, they are regarded as pollutants and can damage the environment if
disposed of improperly.

2. On the basis of components

1. Large household appliances: refrigerators, freezers, washing machines, clothes dryers,

dishwashers, electric cooking stoves and hot plates, microwaves, electric fans, and air
conditioners.

2. Small household appliances: vacuum cleaners, toasters, grinders, coffee machines,

appliances for haircutting and drying, tooth brushing, and shaving.

3. Information technology (IT) and telecommunications equipment: mainframes,

minicomputers, personal computers, laptops, notebooks, printers, telephones, and cell phones.
4. Consumer equipment: radios, televisions, video cameras, video recorders, stereo recorders,
audio amplifiers, and musical instruments.

5. Lighting equipment: straight and compact fluorescent lamps and high-intensity discharge
lamps.

6. Electrical and electronic tools: drills, saws, sewing machines, soldering irons, equipment
for turning, milling, grinding, drilling, making holes, folding, bending, or similar processing
of wood and metal.

7. Toys, leisure equipment, and sporting goods: electric trains or racing car sets, video games,
and sports equipment with electric elements.

8. Medical devices: radiotherapy equipment, cardiology, dialysis, pulmonary ventilators,

nuclear medicines, and analyzers.

9. Monitoring and control instruments: smoke detectors, heating regulators, and thermostats.

10. Automatic dispensers: for hot drinks, hot or cold bottles, solid products, money, and all
appliances that automatically deliver various products.

Step-by Step Process of E-waste Recycling

1.collecting

When the e-waste items arrive at the recycling plants, the first step involves sorting all the
items manually. Batteries are removed for quality check.

2. Disassembly

After sorting by hand, the second step involves a serious labour intensive process of manual
dismantling. The e-waste items are taken apart to retrieve all the parts and then categorized
into core materials and components. The dismantled items are then separated into various
categories into parts that can be re-used or still continue the recycling processes.

3. First size reduction process

Items that cannot be dismantled efficiently are shredded together with the other dismantled
parts to pieces less than 2 inches in diameter. It is done in preparation for further
categorization of the finer e-waste pieces.
4. Second size reduction process

The finer e-waste particles are then evenly spread out through an automated shaking process
on a conveyor belt. The well spread out e-waste pieces are then broken down further. At this
stage, any dust is extracted and discarded in a way that does not degrade the environmentally.

5. Over-band Magnet

At this step, over-band magnet is used to remove all the magnetic materials including steel
and iron from the e-waste debris.

6. Non-metallic and metallic components separation.

The sixth step is the separation of metals and non-metallic components. Copper, aluminum,
and brass are separated from the debris to only leave behind non-metallic materials. The
metals are either sold as raw materials or re-used for fresh manufacture.

7. Water Separation.

As the last step, plastic content is separated from glass by use of water. One separated, all the
materials retrieved can then be resold as raw materials for re-use. The products sold include
plastic, glass, copper, iron, steel, shredded circuit boards, and valuable metal mix.

E-cycle components re-use

1. Plastic: All the plastic materials retrieved are sent to recyclers who use them to
manufacture items such as fence posts, plastic sleepers, plastic trays, vineyard stakes, and
equipment holders or insulators among other plastic products.

2. Metal: Scrap metals materials retrieved are sent to recyclers to manufacture new steel and
other metallic materials.

3. Glass: Glass is retrieved from the Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs) mostly found in televisions
and computer monitors. Lead is the most dangerous and can adversely harm human health
and the environment. Tubes in big CRT monitors can contain high levels of lead of up to 4
kilograms. Other toxic metals such as barium and phosphor are also contained in CRT tubes.

4. Mercury: Mercury containing devices are sent to mercury recycling facilities that uses a
specialized technology for elimination for use in dental amalgams and metric instruments,
and for fluorescent lighting. Other components such as glass and plastics are re-used for
manufacture of their respective products.

5. Printed Circuit Boards: Circuit boards are sent to specialized and accredited companies
where they are smelted to recover non-renewable resources such as silver, tin, gold,
palladium, copper and other valuable metals.

6. Hard Drives: Hard drives are shredded in whole and processed into aluminum ingots for
use in automotive industry.

7. Ink and Toner Cartridges: Ink and toner cartridges are taken back to respective
manufacturing industries for recycling. They are remanufactured while those that can’t are
separated into metal and plastic for re-use as raw materials.

8. Batteries: Batteries are taken to specialized recyclers where they are hulled to take out
plastic. The metals are smelted is specialized conditions to recover nickel, steel, cadmium and
cobalt that are re-used for new battery production and fabrication of stainless steel.

REFERENCES:

1. https://www.britannica.com/science/science
2. https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/waste/what-happens-to-our-shit-once-we-are-
done-with-it--63956
3. https://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/electronics/whatisewaste
4. https://www.who.int/ceh/risks/ewaste/en/
5. https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/e-waste-recycling-process.php
Task -1

1. What is the e-waste?

2. Classification of e-waste by composition and components.
3. Recycling process of e-waste.
4. Reuse of e-waste components.

Task assigned date: 11th October, 2019

Due date: 14th October, 2019

Task-2

1. Take 30- 40 gram of char and heat it at 600 0C for 1 hr.

2. Note the mass loss
3. Put it into the ball mill for 24 hrs and again note the mass loss.

Task assigned date: 11th October, 2019

Due date : 16th October, 2019